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The Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC)
is planning to launch a wireless broadband Internet
service that would allow computers to surf the Web
through the company’s cell phone network.
The Chinese Telecom company ZTE recently completed
the installation of the technology needed to provide
the service with about 80 mln dollars invested.
The service will enable the corporation’s customers
to access the Internet from their desktop or laptop
computers where cell phone service is available.
“We will deliver this service within a maximum of a
month,” Amare Amsalu, CEO of the corporation told
Fortune. Including Addis Abeba, the service will be
debuted in 38 cities and towns.
The technology ZTE installed will have a capacity to
transmit data as fast as 2 megabytes per second, or
20 times as fast as the fastest dial-up connection,
allowing for interrupted transmission of audio and
video, sources at the ZTE told Fortune. The actual
speed of the connection, however, could be
significantly lower due to bottlenecks affecting
data transmission to and from the Horn.
The corporation is making a study jointly with
experts of ZTE to set a tariff for the service. ETC
currently has one of the world’s most expensive
rates for broadband Internet service. According to
prices listed on ETC’s Web site, a 2MB connection
requires a 103,406 Br initial payment and a monthly
fee of 41,479 Br. By comparison, AT&T and BellSouth
offer equal or faster services in the US for about
40 dollars per month.
ETC’s new technology is part of a 1.5 bln dollar
trade credit agreement signed between ZTE and the
corporation last year. In February 2007, ZTE pledged
to supply equipment worth 200 mln dollars that would
enhance the corporation’s mobile and Internet
service. Included in this is the supply of the CDMA
technology-based wireless network equipment that
will provide the backbone for the new broadband
service in addition to the 3G, or Third Generation,
cell phone service.
ETC is a telecom monopoly in Ethiopia established in
1953 with the name Ethiopian Telecommunications
Board. It launched the widely used dial-up Internet
service in 1997 and broadband Internet service in
the middle of 2005.
The services provided by the sole telecom service
provider, however, have largely been a
disappointment for its customers.
“Even the highly rated broad band service is
absolutely different from what they said, and is
continuously interrupted,” a discontented customer
told Fortune.
Currently, the corporation has 19,500 dial-up and
2,500 broadband Internet subscribers. When the
wireless service is launched, it expected that it
would attract an additional 250,000 customers.
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