Frehiwot Tamiru, CEO of Ethiopian Telecom, told reporters today that the state-owned company added more than 3 million customers between last July and the end of December, increasing the total number of telecom service users to over 80 million. The company was projected to have 77 million customers in the 2016 fiscal year.
According to a recent GSMA survey, “our Ethio Telecom has been ranked 1st in Africa and 17th globally in terms of its efforts to expand its modern polytechnic network,” she stated. She claims that the corporation has 77.7 million internal mobile registrations, 43.5 million mobile data and internet users.
According to the CEO, the sale of more than 9 million new SIM cards, the building of additional service centres, the employment of product and service distribution partners, and the continued development of the mobile and fixed networks are all responsible for the increase in the number of customers. Throughout that period, 202 new mobile sites, 4.6 million mobile network capacity, 67 4G cities, and 10 5G cities were completed. There are 491 cities that are using 4G, she said.
She went on to say that consumers now have access to 171 small lies and international goods and services, in addition to 62 new and 109 improvements that are beneficial to the economy and society. Overall, more than 51 million people have used Tele Birr services, and in the past year, Ethio Telecom has added $5 million. During the first six months of the plan, 1.03 trillion birr of electronic money was transferred through Tele Birr; since the service’s inception, 3.58 trillion birr of electronic money have been transferred to the economy.
According to the company’s executive, more than 131 million birr in kind and more than 155 million birr in cash were donated between July and the end of December, totalling more than 287 million birr. These donations were made to support national development and beautification, humanitarian aid, education, health, and the environment. More than 64 million dollars were reported from international services,she continued, and the total revenue for the remainder of the year exceeded 61 billion birr. Additionally, it has paid off 15 million US dollars in foreign loan repayments and generated over 23 billion birr in tax revenue for the government in just six months.
Key points from Ethiopia Telecom’s six-month reports
A rise in the number of telecom customers
The total number of subscribers reached 80.5 million, reaching 100% of the subscriber base target.This increase was 5.9 million, or 7.9%, more than the same quarter of the previous fiscal year. There were 784.1 thousand fixed broadband users, 765.6 thousand fixed voice users, 77.7 million mobile voice subscribers, and 43.5 million mobile data and internet users. This is in line with the 72.2% increase in Elecom density. 9.3 million new SIM cards were sold, which is an increase of 8% over the same period of the previous budget year and a performance of 113% over the fiscal year’s plan.
A GROWTH IN SERVICES AND GOODS
During the half-budget year, the company was able to provide 171 domestic and foreign goods and services (62 new and 109 redesigned). As a result, it was able to broaden and enhance it offerings, benefiting society from the digital economy, simplifying the lives of our customers, increasing enterprise customers’ efficiency and effectiveness by modernising their daily work operations, and increasing customer usage of telecom services and improving customer experience. During the first half of the fiscal year, the company opened 68 additional service centres in cities and regions with accessibility gaps to improve the accessibility of the products and services. There are now 1,000 service centres overall, 513 of which are franchised and 487 are part of the company. According to Ethiopian Telecom’s distribution strategy, there are also 64 major distributors, 43 virtual top-up distributors, 12.7 thousand sub-distributors, and 290.6 thousand retailers engaged in sales-related activities. The total number of partners increased by 303.4 thousand as a result.
CAPACITY AND COVERAGE OF MOBILE NETWORKS
The quality and accessibility of customer service were improved with the successful deployment and operation of 202 new mobile stations during the first half of the fiscal year. The company’s overall mobile network capacity has grown from 86.1 million to 90.7 million with the addition of 4.6 million. It plans to expand our mobile network include state-of-the-art technologies like 3G, 2G, 4G LTE, Massive MIMO, and ultra-fast 5G. Consequently, 10 cities have been made available 5G connectivity, and 67 additional cities now have 4G. SERVICES FOR RURAL CONNECTIVITY To expand teleco, the organization is working on a large-scale rural connectivity project.
RURAL CONNECTIVITY SERVICES
81 rural mobile network sites have been established across 71 woredas in nine Regional States. A total of 295 sites have been successfully implemented across 231 woredas and 12 Regional States.
CAPACITY AND NETWORK QUALITY FIXED
The company has expanded capacity, improved network quality, and extended fibre access by deploying 133,672 customer accommodations through the Optical Distribution Network (ODN). As a result, we can now serve 769,932 ODN clients overall. Tele has effectively switched 18,300 customer connections from copper to fibre as part of its ongoing “Copper Switch-off Initiative,” which is essential to accelerating the country’s digital transformation and development. Out of the 100,000 planned for the budget year, 18,300 were switched. This is essential for speeding up the nation’s digital transformation and general development in addition to providing its clients with high-speed internet and data services.
SERVICE RESTORATION AND RESUMPTION
Large-scale restoration projects in 216 kebeles in the Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, Tigray, Oromia, and Afar regions have been successfully finished. Service restoration has been made possible by the repair and reopening of 231 mobile sites. In 100 towns and districts, this program has reconnected individual and business clients, guaranteeing their ability to use and profit from telecom services once more.
CONSTRUCTING AND UPDATING DIGITAL SYSTEMS
Data Centre & Cloud Service:
The business has increased the capacity of its two data centres to 112 IT racks and 896kW of IT load. This increases the data center’s overall capacity to 512 IT racks and 4.2MW IT load. Successful implementation of the Cloud Infrastructure Expansion Project has contributed to the nation’s digital transformation and allowed institutions to digitise their operations. Consequently, storage capacity increased from 1.3 PB to 4.58 PB and elastic compute capacity increased from 3,072 vCPU to 16,768 vCPU in the first half of the fiscal year.
INTERNATIONAL CONNECTION
During the first half of the fiscal year, Ethio Tele expanded its international connectivity capacity by an additional 190 Gbps, bringing the total capacity to 1.83 terabits per second (TBps), through strategic partnerships with Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya, and Somaliland. It has also signed an MOU with Djibouti Telecom and Sudatel Telecom Group for the Multi-Terabit Horizon Fibre Initiative, a groundbreaking project that will make Eastern Africa a significant player in the global digital economy. Together with partnerships with Google and Meta-Facebook, it also set up a 40Gbps cache service with Netflix to increase speed by locally hosting the most popular content for its users.
An INCREASE REVENUE
The accessibility and quality of networks have been greatly improved by large-scale infrastructure expansion, which has also addressed significant societal issues, improved quality of life, encouraged the use of telecom services, and enhanced the customer experience. According to its preliminary half-year financial report, the company generated a total revenue of 61.9 billion ETB, achieving 90.7% of its goal. Furthermore, 64.4 million USD, or 63.8% of the target, has been made from international services. The main driver of this revenue growth has been the dramatic rise in mobile data usage, which has reached 642.2 billion MB, a 48.8% increase over the same period in the previous fiscal year. In a similar vein, mobile voice services have grown to 83.6 billion minutes, a 12.7% increase.
THE DIGITAL ECONOMY’S TELEBIRR
Reaching 99.8% of its target, Tele successfully added 5 million new users in the first half of the fiscal year, bringing the total number of Telebirr users to over 51.5 million. In the first half of the fiscal year, 1.03 trillion birr worth of electronic money transactions were made using Telebirr. Financial transfers are now more accessible and inclusive thanks to the digitisation of financial services, which has mobilised 3.58 trillion ETB in electronic money transactions across the economy since the service’s launch.
OVERSEAS TRANSACTION
During the first half of the fiscal year, our organisation took several steps to generate foreign exchange. As a result, we generated $72.6 million in foreign exchange, or 58.7% of our objective. Of this, $67.36 million came from international services, and $5.24 million came from telebirr’s international remittance services, which enable money transfers from overseas into the country. Financial Statements (Unaudited Statements) Our company’s financial report, which has not yet undergone an audit, states that we earned $32.82.
Financial Statements (Unaudited Statements)
According the company’s unaudited financial report, we made a profit of 32.82 billion ETB in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), and the unaudited profitability margin climbed to 55.6%, reaching 179.9% of our target. It also paid back foreign loans totalling $15,405,770.24, or 1,820,038,440.37 ETB, and paid taxes to the government totalling 23.74 billion ETB during the preceding six months.
Cybersecurity
By implementing new control measures to stop attempted cyberattacks, the company was able to stop over 266,162 of them before they could cause any harm.
DIGITAL ID REGISTRATION
since April 2024, and by reaching a larger audience across the nation, it is assisting in the realisation of Digital Ethiopia’s vision. Out of the 5.7 million clients who have been successfully registered thus far, 5.1 million have raised awareness and benefited from the services. In the first half of the fiscal year, there were 4.5 million registered customers. In 12 regions, 2 city administrations, and over 275 regional cities and woredas, an average of 27,000 people are registered each day. This progress has been made possible by 444 registration centres and 304 mobile teams.
The POTENTIAL FOR WORK CREATION
Currently, the corporation has 16,564 employees, with 4,694 women (28%), and 11,870 males (72%). Security guards make up the majority of the 23,173 contract or temporary employees. In terms of partnerships, the company has over 347,000 business partners, 303,300 of whom distribute our products and services.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
In the first half of the fiscal year, the company contributed a total of 287.2 million ETB to corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Cash contributions totalling 155.9 million ETB and in-kind donations totalling 131.3 million ETB were allocated to national projects, healthcare, education, humanitarian aid, environmental protection, and green development. It also remain committed to supporting environmental conservation and the Green Legacy initiative, working with our staff and partners to plant seedlings all around the nation. As part of this initiative, more than 446,000 seedlings were successfully planted in 105 locations during the sixth round of the seefling plantation program. Its employees have demonstrated extraordinary dedication in addition to corporate donations by identifying underprivileged communities, giving money, various materials, blood, and other necessary things .
INTERNATIONAL ACCREDITATION
During the first half of the fiscal year,Tele was successfully obtained international certifications for both Telebirr and Telecloud for PCI DSS, Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), and ISO 27001:2022.