Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia aims to triple its telecom tower network in the next three years by investing over USD 1.5 billion to improve coverage across the country. However, there are some challenges to security that Safaricom may face.
CEO of Safaricom, Wim Vanhelleputte, said this week currently, 2500 towers are operating with 1,000 leased from Ethio Telecom. Vanhelleputte, who took over as CEO last July, added that the company was providing services in in Addis Ababa and 26 other cities, as well as on roads.
Ethiopia is one of the biggest countries in Africa and Safaricom Telecom is cover way less than half of the country.” We need up to 7000 towers to cover the entire population of Ethiopia”, the CEO said.
The telecom company has big plans to expand its network. Many of these goals were part of the agreement when they won the license to be the first private telecom company in Ethiopia in 2021. This expansion has been helped by not having to pay taxes on importing equipment.
The telecom company complains that security issues in Ethiopia are a major obstacle to expansion. “We would love to cover the whole country, but there are parts where we cannot provide data services because of unresolved security troubles”, Vanhelleputte said. But the company hopes that in the next 2-3 years, the entire country will be open and accessible.
The company is working on expanding mobile phone use in Ethiopia. It is working on promoting local mobile phone assembly plants in Ethiopia. These plants can produce affordable smartphones, which would create more customers. And allow them to access the digital programs being rolled out across the country as part of the 10-year plan.
Safaricom is also launching a device financing program in partnership with companies and banks. This will allow customers to pay for a smartphone in monthly installments. According to the CEO, Safaricom Ethiopia is in discussions with smartphone assemblers and banks to further improve smartphone accessibility for customers.
Last week, the Communications Authority (ECA) reduced the mobile termination rates (MTR) by 25.8% for the next 5 years. This means the cost per minute for calls between Ethio Telecom and Safaricom Ethiopia networks will go down from 0.31 Birr to 0.23 Birr. This change comes from an interconnection agreement between the two companies that was moderated by the regulator in 2022. It will be effective from 1st May 2024 until April 2025.
Safaricom see this as a wonderful development saying that the Lower rate means more interaction between customers of the two companies, which will lead to growth.
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