ethio telecom

Originally a division of the Ministry of Post, Telephone and Telegraph, what would become the ETC was established as the Imperial Board of Telecommunications of Ethiopia (IBTE) by proclamation No. 131/52 in 1952. Under the Derg regime, the IBTE was reorganized as the Ethiopian telecommunications service in October 1975, which was in turn reorganized in January 1981 as the Ethiopian Telecommunications Authority. In November 1996, the Ethiopian Telecommunications Authority became ETC by Council of Ministers regulation No. 10/1996. The subsequent Proclamation 49/1996 expanded the ETC's duties and responsibilities. For its international traffic links and communication services, ETC mainly uses its earth station at Sululta which transmits and receives to both the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean satellites. Engineering consulting firm Arup, were involved in the design and engineering of the early tower structures (during the 1970s).

In late 2006, the ETC signed an agreement worth US$1.5 billion with three Chinese companies, ZTE Corporation, Huawei Technologies and the Chinese International Telecommunication Construction Corporation, to upgrade and expand Ethiopian telecommunications services. This agreement will increase the number of mobile services from 1.5 million to 7 million, land line telephone services from 1 million to 4 million, and expansion of the fibre optic network, from the present 4,000 kilometers to 10,000 by 2010. It is part of a larger US$2.4 billion plan by the Ethiopian government to improve the country's telecommunications infrastructure. In 2018, the mobile service business has reached 85% of the country. In February 2018, it was reported that Ethio telecom had 64.4 million subscribers making it the largest telecommunication services operator in the continent. In August 2019, the company announced that it will install 4G network before other telecom companies enter the Ethiopian market since the government decided that it will liberalize the telecom sector.

Frehiwot Tamiru is serving as the current chief executive officer since 25 July 2018 replaced Andualem Admassie who served five years. Frehiwot previously worked as Deputy CEO for Internal Support Service for then Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation. She told Capital that she managed all surveillance quality protocols.

By 26 August 2020, Ethio telecom planned to extended 842 new infrastructure site during 2020 fiscal year. This infrastructure expected to enable the company to host additional 5.2 million new customers. During this fiscal year, the company planned to generate 55.5 billion birr in revenue, a 16pc growth from the last fiscal year. It also plans to boost the country's telecom density to 51.3%. At the end of financial year 2021/22 it generated a revenue of 61.3 billion birr and boosted the country's telecom density to 63.3% after total subscribers reached 66.59 million.

In May 2021, Ethio telecom launched Telebirr, a mobile service platform. Frehiwot said 21.8 million users signed up with this service, making total transaction of 30.3 billion birr. On 10 May 2022, Ethio telecom commenced 5G network for pre-commercial sale in partnership of Huawei Technologies after several months upgrading the predecessor 4G network. In October 2024, Ethio telecom announced to sell its 10% stakes to citizens after formalization of transition to share company on 21 June 2024. The CEO of Ethio telecom Frehiwot Tamiru explained that buyers can purchase up to 3,333 shares with maximum amount of total investment of 990,000 birr. She noted that such purchase would incur taxes and service fees.

Network and Infrastructure

Cellular

Ethio Telecom's national network infrastructure consists of 10,000 plus mobile towers providing geographical coverage to 86.5% of the country. The company 4G/LTE service has reached 70.8% of the population and its 5G service is available in 26 cities in by June 2025. While network availability has expanded significantly, a prominent "usage gap" persists, as highlighted by industry analysis from the GSMA. The GSMA reports that only 26% of the population covered by mobile broadband are active users. Primary barriers include low penetration of smart phones, lack of digital skills, and limited access to critical infrastructure, particularly electricity.

Internet

Ethio telecom runs fiber cables through Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya, and Somaliland terminating to the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System. In 2025, the total capacity of the four lines achieved 1.83 terabits per second data transfer rate and the overall length of inland fiber cables increased to a total of 23,000 kilometers.

Ethio telecom's Network has marginal support for IPv6.

International

Ethio Telecom's total international gateway (IGW) capacity stands at 2.48 Tbit/s, following an expansion of 840 Gbit/s during the 2024/2025 fiscal year to support growing data traffic. A significant portion of this bandwidth, 1.24 Tbit/s, is provided through locally deployed cache servers that host content from major international platforms like Meta, Netflix, and TikTok within the country. This strategy is aimed at enhancing user experience by reducing latency and speeding up access to popular global content.

Controversies

In October 2022, Safaricom, a leading telecommunications company in Kenya, commenced operations in Ethiopia following the government's liberalization of the telecom sector. This change allowed users to choose between two telecom providers. Sources indicate that the competition forced Ethio Telecom to massively enhance its products and services while reducing prices. The company's CEO talked about the improvement saying "It's about our survival"

The Ethiopian government has delayed the approval of Safaricom's mobile money transfer service, M-Pesa, which has been highly successful across East Africa. Currently, 602 governmental institutions and 1,447 petrol stations accept payments solely through Telebirr. Combined with two-year head start telebirr had, this resulted in poor adoption of M-Pesa with just 3.1 million subscribers as of 2023 as compared to telebirr's 54.8 million subscribers.

In December, Ethio Telecom accused Safaricom Ethiopia of causing significant damage to its international communication line running through Djibouti, as well as to its service lines in the Afar region, due to construction activities on the line.

Safaricom Ethiopia shares infrastructure of Ethiotelecom, this generated 743.6 million birr in revenue for the state-owned company during the first half of 2023.