Ethio telecom, the state telecom giant, settled 148.2 million dollars in debt in the first half of this fiscal year. The value is 41pc of the 362 million dollars debts the company paid last year, much of the debt was accumulated over the previous three years. The loan was invested in the expansion of the Next Generation Network and Telecom Expansion Project. For the projects, the company received 2.3 billion dollars of the total three-billion-dollar loan approved by the Chinese government. So far, the company paid 1.3 billion dollars of it, and the remaining one billion dollars is expected to be paid back in the next nine years. In the reported period, the company generated total revenue of 22.4 billion Br, achieving 104pc of the target. The company bagged 16.7 billion Br last year during the same period. During the reported period, Ethio telecom had 45.6 million subscribers, a 10.9pc increase from the same period in the previous year, according to Frehiwot Tamiru, CEO of the company, who gave a press briefing on January 15, 2020.