Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Ethiopia's state telecom launches 5G services in capital

Published 05/09/2022, 01:11 PM
Updated 05/09/2022, 01:16 PM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ethio-Telecom Chief Executive Officer, Frehiwot Tamru addresses delegates during the launch of a mobile phone-based financial service named Telebirr mobile money service, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia May 11, 2021. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ethio-Telecom Chief Executive Officer, Frehiwot Tamru addresses delegates during the launch of a mobile phone-based financial service named Telebirr mobile money service, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia May 11, 2021. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri

By Dawit Endeshaw

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - State-owned operator Ethio Telecom launched a 5G mobile phone service on Monday in a key step ahead of competition from new entrants in an industry that has been closed for international players.

Next-generation 5G networks can provide data speeds at least 20 times faster than 4G and are seen as important for emerging technologies like self-driving cars and enable communication and interconnectivity between smart devices.

Ethio Telecom Chief Executive Officer Frehiwot Tamru said the service will first be available in the capital Addis Ababa, before eventually spreading to other parts of the country.

"The 5G service is launched in selected places in Addis Ababa," she said at a launch event. "In the coming 12 months, we will have 150 5G sites in Addis Ababa and outside Addis Ababa."

Frehiwot did not say how much deploying the network would cost.

Ethio Telecom, which has 64 million subscribers across the nation, said in a separate statement that China's Huawei Technologies was its equipment supplier for the network.

It recorded a 6.7% rise in revenues to 28 billion birr ($544.40 million) in its half year to Dec. 31.

The government launched a tendering process for selling a 40% stake in Ethio Telecom to private investors last June.

In March, the government said it had postponed the planned partial privatisation because of the prevailing economic environment domestically and globally.

In December, industry regulator Ethiopian Communication Authority said it had also suspended a tender process for a second telecommunications licence, which it said it would relaunch in the "near future".

The Horn of Africa country of about 110 million people sold only one of two full-service licences on offer in May 2021.

The winner of the first licence, a consortium led by Kenya's Safaricom SCOM.NR, Vodafone (NASDAQ:VOD), and Japan's Sumitomo, is in the process of setting up its network ahead of a planned commercial launch due anytime now.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ethio-Telecom Chief Executive Officer, Frehiwot Tamru addresses delegates during the launch of a mobile phone-based financial service named Telebirr mobile money service, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia May 11, 2021. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri

The licences are considered a big prize in the country's push to liberalise the economy, which had been one of the world's last major closed telecoms markets.

($1 = 51.4331 birr)

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.