Ethiopia Expects Two New Telecom Companies by September

May 2 , 2020


By September, three full telecommunications service providers are expected to be licensed by the Ethiopian Communications Authority, the newly formed organ in charge of regulating telecom and radio frequency, including two new operators beside the existing state-owned Ethio telecom. The Authority availed a draft communication licensing directive last week that will enable it to issue licenses to full operators and class service providers. The 19-page draft, which has been availed for stakeholder consultation, states that companies with unified licenses, aka full-service providers, can deliver all mobile, internet and fixed call services to customers. Class license holders can engage with telecommunications infrastructure, internet service, value-added services, virtual internet, and hosting services, among other elements.  The three full-service operators will be licensed for 15 years, and their licenses will be subject for renewal, according to the directive, which is open for comments until May 11, 2020. The Authority also availed two more draft directives that handle dispute resolution and consumer rights and protection. The Authority aims to issue a total of 12 directives, six of which will enable the Authority to issue licenses for the new service operators.  For the issuance of the three licenses to the full-service operators, the Authority is working on a document to announce it is looking for bidders. It will then announce a tender for the companies that respond. Ethio telecom is also required to re-register.


Radar

CHERRY PICKING

Women around the Koshe area hunt through piles of trash to find scraps of metal to sell. With close to three million people unemployed in the country and a headline inflation of 33pc, unskilled labour is in little demand. Ethiopia has an adult literacy rate of 51pc, with fewer numbers going past high school. Less than three percent of 12th-grade students made it to universities this year while the rest were at the mercy of remedial exams...


Radar

JUNGLE CREW

An old wooden car that was part of a commercial campaign by a furniture company around the Beherawi Theatre area. Ethiopia's forest coverage to national land size has been registered at 15pc to the latest data by the World Bank. The current Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched an initiative labelled 'Green Legacy' to plant five billion trees in 2020 claiming an 83pc success...


Radar

OVER CAPACITY

A young boy attempts to pull a piece of cloth from an overloaded pickup truck around the Ayer Tena area. Observing an unsupervised child on the streets of the capital has become a common sight, with sporadic conflict across the country creating nearly four million internally displaced people. Despite the last census having been conducted 16 years ago, the population of the country is estimated at 120 million...