Dawit Endeshaw

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – State-owned operator Ethio Telecom launched a 5G mobile phone service on Monday in a key step ahead of competition from new entrants in an industry that has been closed for international players.

Future-generation 5G networks will offer data speeds up to 20 times faster that 4G. They are important for new technologies such as self-driving vehicles and allow interconnectivity and communication between smart devices.

Frehiwot Tamru is the Chief Executive Officer of Ethio Telecom. He stated that the service will initially be made available in Addis Ababa. It then expands to other regions.

She said that the 5G service was launched at select locations in Addis Ababa during a launch party. In the next 12 months we will be able to establish 150 5G stations in Addis Ababa as well as outside Addis Ababa.

Frehiwot has not stated how much the deployment of the network will cost.

Ethio Telecom (which has 64 millions subscribers) stated in separate statements that Huawei Technologies from China was their equipment supplier.

The company saw 6.7% growth in revenues, reaching 28 billion birr (5544.40 millions) during the period from Dec. 31 to December 31.

Last June, the government opened a tender process to sell a 40% share in Ethio Telecom’s assets to private investors.

The government announced in March that it was delaying the partial privatization of its planned business because of the current economic climate both domestically and internationally.

The industry regulator Ethiopian Communication Authority stated that it also had suspended the tender process for a second telecom licence. It said that it will relaunch it in “near future”.

Only one of the two full-service licenses available in May 2021 were sold by Horn of Africa, a country of approximately 110 million inhabitants.

A consortium consisting of Kenya’s Safaricom.NR, Vodafone (NASDAQ) and Sumitomo Japan is currently setting up their network in preparation for a commercial launch.

These licenses represent a significant prize for the country’s efforts to open up the economy. It was one of the last closed markets in telecoms.

($1 = 51.4331 birr)