September 26, 2022

Ethio Telecom aspires to reach over half the population, launch edge-cutting services in the year

City: Addis AbabaTechNews

Besides the financial targets, Ethio Telecom proposed to launch modern digital services such as music and IPTV/streaming

Avatar: Abiy Solomon
By Abiy Solomon

Abiy is the Editor-in-Chief of Addis Zeybe. He has intense experience in journalism, visual communication, and online media. Abiy has worked in various editorial positions for The Daily Monitor, The Reporter, Fortune, and BBC Media Action.

Ethio Telecom aspires to reach over half the population, launch edge-cutting services in the year
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Credit: Ethio Telecom (Frehiwot Tamiru, CEO of Ethio Telecom)

The state-owned largest telecom operator, Ethio Telecom, disclosed in its three years strategic document that it strives to reach 73.5 million customers (over half of the current population of Ethiopia) by the end of the current Ethiopian fiscal year. 

Ethio Telecom issued a business strategy document- 3 Years Lead Growth Strategy- on Sept 26, which detailed the operator's major achievements and strategic plans for the coming three years. 

Among the stated targets Ethio-Telecom yearns to achieve in 2022/23 are expanding its customer base from 64.5 to 73.5 million; growing its TeleBirr mobile money subscribers from 20.9 to 32.6 million; garnering 75.05 billion ETB revenue from the current 61.3 billion; raise foreign currency income from the current 146.6 million to 153 million USD. 

Besides the financial targets, the telecom operator proposed to launch digital and content services such as user drive, music streaming, IPTV/streaming, and site builder, along with cloud solutions. 

It is indicated in the strategic document that between the period June 2018 to June 2022, the number of Ethio Telecom’s mobile voice users grew from 36.37 to 64.5 million; mobile broadband from 17.8 to 25.6 million; and the number of smartphones went up from 12.5 to 28.12 million. 

Regarding tariff discounts, a 40% discount is made on mobile voice and a 43% discount on data services from June 2018 to June 2022. 

The strategic plan mentioned competition, security-related service interruption, economy, legal & regulatory, infrastructure vandalism & theft, and forex as the major potential risks. 

Ethio-Telecom was solely owned by the government for ages until the first private operator license is granted to Safaricom Ethiopia which started operation three weeks ago. 

Since the allowance of Safaricom as the first private operator in the industry, Ethio Telecom came up with remarkable new modern services in a short time such as introducing the 5G network, enhancement of its mobile money services, and launching eSIM service more recently.

Safaricom Ethiopia began a customer pilot of its network in Dire Dawa City on 2G, 3G, and 4G networks in August.