Ethiopia’s Telecom Sector Progress Report for the Year of 2016

Ethiopia’s telecom sector made significant progress in 2016, with notable achievements in network expansion and financial performance. The 4G network was expanded to cover 424 cities, and 462 new mobile stations were built to support this growth. Additionally, 132 rural mobile stations were upgraded from 2G to 3G service, and 4G service now reaches 34.6% of the country. The 5G service was launched in five cities.

The sector also made substantial progress in improving rural connectivity, with 216 rural kebeles that previously lacked mobile network access now being connected. The mobile network now reaches 85.4% of the population, covering over 99% of users.

Financially, Ethiopia’s telecom sector generated 93 billion birr in revenue and achieved a net profit of 79 billion birr. Furthermore, the number of telecom customers reached over 78 million, and the mobile money service, Tele Birr, processed over 8 trillion birr in transactions. The number of Telebre subscribers reached 47.55 million.

Moreover, the telecom network was built to handle up to 86 million customers, and Ethiopia’s telecom sector is ranked 17th out of 778 telecom operators worldwide and 2nd out of 195 telecom operators in Africa.

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