Ethiopia vows investment in telecoms, IT
August 22, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia’s prime minister Wednesday promised to invest in the country’s telecommunications network, long hampered by corruption, bad service and high tariffs.
Ethiopia plans to double the size of its network within the next three weeks by putting 1.2 million new phone numbers on the market.
Abdurahim Ahmed, a spokesman for Ethiopia’s state-owned telecommunications corporation, said the expansion, along with technological improvements, will cost $21.7 million.
The expansion is in addition to a $200 million contract to upgrade the mobile network the government signed last May with a Chinese telecoms company.
Ahmed said improving telecommunications was “ammunition to reduce poverty.” He said the government regretted not putting greater effort into its telecommunications sector until a decade ago. “We didn’t give it due attention,” he told the Associated Press.
A call from Ethiopia to neighboring Kenya costs $1.47 a minute, as does a call to Australia. International calls on one of Kenya’s largest mobile networks, Celtel, vary widely, but can cost a tenth of the price, at less than 15 cents a minute, or up to $1.50 a minute.
Ethiopian newspapers have reported that several senior officials at the state telecoms company have been fired for corruption in the past months.
Text messaging in Ethiopia is forbidden, after a spate of post-election violence in 2005 when opposition protesters were accused of using the service to arrange antigovernment rallies.
(AP)