WIRING ETHIOPIA

Interview with Mr. Abdurahim Ahmed, corporate communication manager, Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC)

Mr. Abdurahim Ahmed,
corporate communication
manager, Ethiopian
Telecommunications
Corporation (ETC)

How much progress has there been in telecommunications in Ethiopia?
There has certainly been progress in this area. Up until recently, there had been only a legacy of voice transmission. In 1980 there were 19,500 lines, more than 70 per cent concentrated in Addis Ababa, with the remaining 30 per cent in regional towns. Now there are 881,000 landlines. As far as subscribers are concerned, in 1990 there were 135,000; now this number has increased to 2.9 million. In 1997, we introduced broadband services and Internet. Another area of progress is “rural connectivity”. Of over 18,000 villages, about 6,600 villages been connected. On average, an Ethiopian has to travel 35 kilometres to reach a phone line. We aim to reduce that to 5 km. And more than 600 villages are using wireless connection technology. The mobile connection covers 1.4 million subscribers, of which 1.2 million are in the major towns of Ethiopia and about 150 cities. In terms of connectivity and techniques, we have become the beneficiaries of the “latecomer advantage”. Wireless technology has helped us a lot. The remote areas are using satellite infrastructures.

How does this help the country’s development?
Several programmes deliver services directly to remote regions. The SchoolNet project helped 250 high schools with plasma TVs, for the delivery of Internet and TV to remote areas. The AgriNet programme allows 34 agricultural institutes to use broadband technology. And the Wareda project allows waredas (basic administrative units) to hold conferences among themselves and connect to the national data centre.

What are your national objectives?
We have two objectives: development and business. The development objective flows from our obligation to provide services equitably across the board. The business objective applies to Internet and mobile connections.

What about international connections, which remain expensive?
International calls are 10 birr [$1.20] per minute. The satellite gateway is our outlet, therefore it is expensive. The alternative is to be connected via Djibouti by submarine cable to Jeddah and Bahrain and then to London. The ideal outlet for our country is Djibouti, where there are many connections. That will be much better.