Ethiopia’s state-owned telecommunications company, Ethio Telecom beats MTN Nigeria to become Africa’s largest operator in terms of its mobile customer base, with over 57 million mobile subscribers as at November 2017.
The telecommunication company attributes its success to an expansion drive that cost them over $1.6 billion in the last few years. The expansion they said, contributed ‘an integral part in terms of customer base and infrastructure growth.’
Africa’s second most populous nations telecoms company’s network capacity, currently stands at 62 million mobile subscribers, 3 million fixed line users with a mobile service coverage of 85%.
Also, the company boasts a vast fiber route that allows optical fiber network coverage as well as an International Gateway Capacity; 42 Gbps (including 3 Terrestrial Route through Djibouti, Sudan & Kenya and a satellite back up).
Having surpassed neighboring Kenya to become the largest economy in the world, the East African country is an economic powerhouse in the region receiving praises from the likes of World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to an expectation in the telecommunications sector, “Ethiopia is one of the very few African countries that has not liberalized its telecoms market and introduced competition, so Ethio Telecom has a monopoly”.
With customers across all regions in the country enjoying super-fast services, 4G LTE, and the popular 3G wireless services—after upgrading the 2G network, the expansion project by Ethio Telecom has significantly improved quality of services gaining them more customer base.
According to Ethio telecom“Over the past few years, the company has been transforming itself to meet its vision of becoming a world-class operator and our journey so far shows we are on the right track”.
