The executives of Safaricom Ethiopia Plc have expanded their large-scale network pilot to Awoday and Gonder towns in the Oromia and Amhara regional states, respectively. The expansion brings the number of towns testing the operator's network services to 10 since it first launched in Dire Dawa in late August. Harar, Bahir Dar, Adama, Bishoftu, and Debre Birhan are among the towns hosting the network. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anwar Soussa and his team want to see the pilot reach 25 urban areas by next April. Last week, Safaricom Ethiopia inked a sub-lease agreement with the Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) for the construction of a new data centre in Addis Abeba's ICT Park. Projected to cost 60 million dollars, the data centre will be the telecom operator's second in the country. Safaricom set up a data centre in the capital's Akaki-Qality District at a cost of 100 million dollars earlier this year.

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