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Ethiopia Lengthening Fiber-optic Line To 10,000 kms

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BY NEW BUSINESS ETHIOPIA REPORTER
With the aim of expanding telephone and internet services, Ethiopian government is working to extend the current 7,000 kms of fiber-optics line to 10,000 kms in the coming three months. 

This is indicated by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Sofian Ahmed, while presenting five year performance report of the ministry to the Parliament. Access to telecom services of Ethiopia in five kilometers range has now reached 50 percent from it was at 13 percent last year, according to Sufian.  

He also noted that in the coming three months the total number of mobile phone users in the country will also increase to 6 million from 4 million.

It was at the end of 2010 that the government telecom monopoly, Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation has signed a contract agreement with SEACOM Telecom Company for the procurement of international fiber optic bandwidth connectivity.

According to this 634.5 million birr (47 million USD) deal, Ethiopia will be connected to the rest of the world through submarine fiber communication system via Djibouti and will get high-speed internet connection and better telecom services.

The deal makes Ethiopia the eighth country in Africa to be connected to the SEACOM system following South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Djibouti. 

The information obtained from its official website indicated that SEACOM is offering one, seamless product to end users spanning 11 sovereign nations. It will be the first cable to provide broadband to countries in east Africa which, at the moment, rely entirely on expensive satellite connections.

The project is well underway with final construction and the cable landing stations have been completed almost entirely and the three cable segments are currently underway, the company says.

“One is making its way from the edge of South African waters north to Mozambique while another is motoring to the coast of Yemen from the Red Sea coast of Egypt. The third ship is loaded with SEACOM's deepwater cable that will go from India towards Africa,” it says.

The company also noted that there will be six weeks of testing once the 17,000 kilometers submarine fibre optic cables linking south and east Africa to global network is completed.




 

Comments (9)
  • new generation
    Just a good news. But Ethiopian telecommunication should also work on two things: Reduction in service charges which, when compared to other countries, is very much expensive and the quality of service it is offering. We are fade up of hearing a stranger sound which says ' sorry the net work is busy now ' Got me? By the way why is that the Ethiopian government monopolizes ETC? What about deregulating it? We could have get even a better service had it been deregulated? Ethiopians, foreigners should be excluded from this affair, need to be allowed some ... in the telecoms sector.
  • Mengedegna
    this will immensely contribute to the growth and development of our economy. through lower costs and faster connection, it will help ETC offer many more services that are currently not available to the public, which will also hep businesses function a lot better,
    Access to information is one of the major factors of economic development. Hopefully, the recent takeover of management at ETC should help introduce better and cheaper services to the public.

    @ new generations: i think the government will eventually give up some of its control over ETC. the latest management contract given to a French telecom is one sign.
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