After seizing equipment, Ethiopia goes ahead with Huawei deal

Despite the incident, Huawei has been picked by Ethio Telecom, a state-owned telecom company, to roll out a high-speed 4G network across the country's capital, Addis Ababa, as part of a $1.6 billion deal signed earlier this year with Huawei Technologies and ZTE.

In October this year, Ethiopian tax authority ERCA said it would confiscate the equipment and slap the company with a tax avoidance charge, after the equipment had been held in a warehouse for almost a year. The equipment was imported into the country toward the end of 2012 after Ethio Telecom made known plans to expand its network in the East African country.

Ethio Telecom is the sole telecommunication services provider in Ethiopia and the only operator in the East Africa region that is still under tight state control. The Ethiopian government has refused to open up its telecom sector to private investors.

According to a Ethiopian government official, Ethiopia and China became involved in diplomatic talks over seizure of the equipment. The two countries are said to have agreed that it was important to maintain good bilateral relations by allowing Huawei to take back the equipment.

However, the Chinese company has also been ordered by ERCA to pay five percent of the total tax due on the equipment as well as warehouse charges incurred over the past one year.

"We had planned to slap the company with tax avoidance charge and confiscate the equipment. But the two countries got involved in the issue and it was agreed that it was important to maintain cordial bilateral relations," an ERCA source said on condition of anonymity. He said China has been a major funder of several ICT projects in Ethiopia, including the $1.5 billion Millennium project aimed at creating a fiber-optic network across the country.

source: www.pcadvisor.co

Ethiopia to get high speed 4G network

Ethiopia’s Ethio Telecom has revealed that Huawei Technologies Co Ltd as been contracted to launch a high-speed 4G network in the country, according to a report by Reuters.

This announcement comes following a deal between Ethio Telecom and China’s Huawei and ZTE earlier in the year to expand and improve the country’s information technology (IT) infrastructure.

The Ethiopian government’s ability to monitor the online activities of its citizens and intercept their digital communications has grown more “sophisticated” in the past year despite the fact the Ethiopia has one of the lowest information technology penetration in the world, according to a recent Freedom House Report.

The annual report, which evaluates the state of internet and digital media around the world, revealed that the Ethiopian government’s hawk-eye inspection over its citizens internet usage “is made possible by the state’s monopoly over the country’s only telecom company, Ethio Telecom”.

With the support of the China, the Ethiopian government is reported to have increased its surveillance abilities to be able to censor online political and social content as well as block advanced applications which could enable anonymous online communication.

“Ethiopia is the only country in Sub-Saharan Africa to implement nationwide internet filtering,” the report revealed, adding that the Ethiopian government’s censorship of online content intensified following speculative reports about the illness of the Late Prime Minster Meles Zenawi and Muslim protests in 2012 which was geared through the internet.

Mobile phones and internet were only introduced into Ethiopia during the twilight of the last decade. Despite several notable improvements in information technology (IT) across the world, the Ethiopian IT sector has grown at a slow pace. Currently, only an estimated 2.5% of the Ethiopian population are believed to have access to the internet. The Ethiopian government has noted that plans are underway to expand internet access to rural areas of the country where a majority of the nation’s population reside—thousands of kilometers of fiber-optic cables are reported to have been installed in the country and there are plans to connect Ethiopia to the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy).

source: www.zegabi.com

vodacom seeks entry into Ethopia,s telecom sector

South Africa’s Vodacom Group has opened its first office in Ethiopia in an attempt to establish its presence in the country.

The company, which has a strong presence in several African countries including Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania, DRC, Nigeria, and of course South Africa, has described Ethiopia as the “most fantastic telecoms market on the continent.”

“We would invest here tomorrow… One operator, 80 million people, the economy growing at 7% – it’s a great market,” Vodacom Group chief executive officer, Romeo Kumalo told Reuters.

The Telecoms firm says it will soon apply for a license to offer value-added services – all other services aside from standard voice calls. This is seen as an attempt to position itself in anticipation of the government’s opening of the country’s telecommunications sector to private investors.

More than 200 Telecoms companies have applied for similar licenses from Ethiopia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, but only MTN group has been granted the authority to offer value-added services. But MTN is yet to set up shop in the country.

Ethiopia’s state-run Ethio Telecom continues to maintain a monopoly in telecoms and refuses to liberalize the sector saying the USD 321 million generated by the company every year is used to finance infrastructure projects. Foreign investors continue to show great interest in the sector, which Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has described as a “cash cow”.

Ethio Telecom recently made deals with Huawei and ZTE to expand the mobile phone infrastructure throughout the country. The two deals will see the introduction of a 4G network in Addis Ababa and expansion of mobile phone and 3G internet access throughout the rest of the country.

Growth in Ethiopia’s Telecoms sector is indicative of the entire continent, which has seen tremendous growth in recent years with subscribers increasing significantly between 2011 and 2012.

source: www.zegabi.com

addiis ababa eagerly awaits for 4G rollout

A high speed 4G network, scheduled to be implemented by Huawei, forms a crucial part of the joint venture to expand mobile phone infrastructure nationally.

Abdurahim Ahmed, head of communications at Ethio Telecom, has been quoted as saying, “In terms of allocation, Huawei will be responsible for the expansion of 4G in Addis Ababa, including other mobile services the 2G, 3G, IP and the like.”

Among the expected outcomes of the project are that some 400,000 subscribers stand to benefit, that the country will increase the total number of subscribers and there will be an enhancement of existing 3G services.

In August the acting CEO of Ethio Telecom, Andualem Admassie, was quoted by Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency as saying the Project is important in contributing to efforts to increase telecommunications service access and coverage nationally.

source: www.itnewsafrica.com

vodacom seeks entry into ethiopia's telecom sector

South Africa’s Vodacom Group has opened its first office in Ethiopia in an attempt to establish its presence in the country.

The company, which has a strong presence in several African countries including Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania, DRC, Nigeria, and of course South Africa, has described Ethiopia as the “most fantastic telecoms market on the continent.”

“We would invest here tomorrow… One operator, 80 million people, the economy growing at 7% – it’s a great market,” Vodacom Group chief executive officer, Romeo Kumalo told Reuters.

The Telecoms firm says it will soon apply for a license to offer value-added services – all other services aside from standard voice calls. This is seen as an attempt to position itself in anticipation of the government’s opening of the country’s telecommunications sector to private investors.

More than 200 Telecoms companies have applied for similar licenses from Ethiopia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, but only MTN group has been granted the authority to offer value-added services. But MTN is yet to set up shop in the country.

Ethiopia’s state-run Ethio Telecom continues to maintain a monopoly in telecoms and refuses to liberalize the sector saying the USD 321 million generated by the company every year is used to finance infrastructure projects. Foreign investors continue to show great interest in the sector, which Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has described as a “cash cow”.

Ethio Telecom recently made deals with Huawei and ZTE to expand the mobile phone infrastructure throughout the country. The two deals will see the introduction of a 4G network in Addis Ababa and expansion of mobile phone and 3G internet access throughout the rest of the country.

source : www.zegabi.com

China's Huawei to roll out 4G service in Ethopian capital

Ethiopia's state-run Ethio Telecom  had picked Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the world's second largest telecom equipment maker, to roll out a high-speed 4G network across the capital Addis Ababa.

The introduction of the service is part of a $1.6 billion deal signed in July and August between the Ethiopian firm, Huawei and ZTE, China's second-biggest telecoms equipment maker, to expand mobile phone infrastructure throughout the Horn of Africa country.

"In terms of allocation, Huawei will be responsible for the expansion of 4G in Addis Ababa, including other mobile services - the 2G, 3G, IP and the like," Abdurahim Ahmed, Ethio Telecom's head of communications, told Reuters.

Abdurahim said the allocation plan was finalized on Wednesday.

"It is expected to benefit more than 400,000 subscribers. Within an eight-month period, the expansion project of Addis Ababa, including 4G, will be completed."

The deal, signed by ZTE in August and Huawei a month before, will enable Ethiopia to double subscribers to more than 50 million by 2015 and expand 3G service throughout the country.

Both firms will split their work along 13 expansion areas.

The contract was awarded under a long-term loan package to be paid over a 13-year period with an interest rate of "less than 1 percent", Abdurahim said.

Africa's rapidly expanding telecoms industry has come to symbolize its economic growth, with subscribers across the continent totaling almost 650 million last year, up from just 25 million in 2001, according to the World Bank.

Ethio Telecom is the only mobile operator in the country of more than 80 million people, among the last remaining countries on the continent to maintain a state monopoly in telecoms.

The government has ruled out liberalizing its telecoms sector, saying the 6 billion birr ($321 million) it generates each year is being spent on railway projects. Ethiopia plans to build 5,000 km of railway lines by 2020.