It is hard not to criticise the state telecom monopoly and a government that chooses to protect it. There is little the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) excels at other than inefficiency. Services are limited, unreliable and expensive. And there is little sign of change.

Both ETC’s internal deficiencies in improving upon its dismal service provision and limited vision are grounds for ranting. The list of grievances is quite lengthy and affects business and social life. It is hard to pass a single day without feeling frustration at the inadequacy of the telecom services. But it is simply unforgivable that a businessman cannot help but wonder at the improvements to productivity that could be garnered if phones worked properly and Internet connections moved beyond snail’s pace.
 

Calls are dropped without explanation, phones unreachable for no apparent reason and the network is unavailable in supposedly covered areas. In some cases, service seems to be deteriorating rather than improving. And this is just within the limited categories that the giant Corporation claims to provide.

The list of service offerings common to most of the world, even those countries unfortunate enough to be at the bottom of the per capita income lists like Ethiopia, are not dreamed of by many here who cannot even send or receive voicemails on mobiles. Voicemail has been standard in the West since cell phones emerged widely in the 1990’s.
 

Next door, war-torn Somalia enjoys telecom free market competition in the absence of a stable central government and the subsequent cheap rates. Neighbouring Uganda has flourished in Internet service provision (ISP) with upwards of 40 licensed ISPs. But these successes are the result of competition and not state sanctioned monopolies as exist here.
 

It is mind-boggling that most consumers are stuck with dial-up Internet service that cannot complete simple downloads without being interrupted. The proliferation of freeware on the Web means applications that can speed business transactions are only a click away, for the rest of the world. It is not a rare day that people walk into the Internet cafés spreading like wildfire across city centres and are turned away because the connection is down. This is a loss not only to that small businessperson, but often to others’ workflows depending on the service.
 

The lack of real broadband mobile service and third generation (3G) technology on mobiles is a travesty. These services had been promised and there are certainly paying customers who would be lining up to use the technologies were they provided. Upwards of 400 million people enjoy them elsewhere.
 

Though the majority of Ethiopians have no financial capacity or immediate need for these services, there are many wiling to fork over premium fees for the modern conveniences and enhanced business efficiency. This income with growth potential would in turn fund the network expansion projects ETC prides itself on.
 

At present, the telecom monolith seems most concerned with getting phones to the countryside where the majority of Ethiopians still earn their livelihoods in the agricultural sector. This is a worthy objective and the company has made giant strides in getting more communities onto the grid. But the manner ETC is choosing to achieve the long-term goals is an exercise in doing things the hard way.
 

The example of once ultra-profitable MCI in the United States (US) is telling. While it had a massive long distance voice network, when it tried to switch over to data transfer provision it lost out as building a whole new infrastructure proved better done by new entrants. ETC seems to be stumbling over itself trying to do the same.
 

CHOOSING SIZE OVER EFFICIENCY
 

ETC is a huge company; its revenues last year were 2.7 billion Br. netting a profit of 777 million Br. mark. But this is not necessarily good news. Nor is it anywhere close to the potential numbers free market players could be reaching in mobile or Internet service provision.
 

But ETC is choosing to overstretch itself. The Corporation attempts to do everything itself. From top to bottom this over 100-year-old giant is engaged in all aspects of service provision. While distributing SIM cards it is also erecting telephone lines.
 

There is no reason for ETC to do all this on its own. Specialisation is the name of the free market game and the Corporation should be taking advantage of the expertise from abroad and (limited) possibilities locally to outsource some of its many projects.
 

But this is unlikely to occur under the current regime that seems to put little muscle behind the sparse privatisation rhetoric. Losing public jobs – though they would be regained in the private sector – appears to be too large a cost for the great benefits that accrue to society at large from opening the gates to competition.

Countless criticisms of ETC have fallen on stubborn ears.
 

Though difficult to pinpoint, the government’s rationale for keeping telecom public may also have to do with information control. The cessation of SMS services two-and-a-half years ago would be more difficult, though not impossible, in a free market. So too would the current Website censorship be a more arduous task. But letting these freedoms of information access and speech exist would not be a bad thing, nor damaging no matter how paternal the government currently sees its proper role as being.
 

So until the government changes its underlying philosophy, ETC will have to reform from within. Unfortunately, it is not even very good at this. Recent management reshufflings in attempts to tackle the inefficiencies have not shown results. Indeed, changing faces have done little more than to change the names to blame.
 

Internally, the Corporation has deep seated problems in getting management to agree to coherent strategies and has little in the way of the technological expertise nor progressive thinking that today’s telecom sector demands. ETC rather seems to be stumbling along staying afloat only because it does not have any competition.
 

The recent debates in how best to modernise its mobile network to include 3G services is a case in point. Choosing between the time-based GSM prevalent in Europe and speedier W-CDMA code-based network in the US has shown lack of technical prowess at the Corporation. The result is delays in implementation to a service Uganda has had since 2004.

FAILING THE PUBLIC
 

ETC is a public company and is thus accountable to the citizens of this country. If such a poll existed to determine customer satisfaction, it would likely not turn up positive results for the telecom giant. The number of carriers of mobile phones who seldom can afford them for much more than receiving calls and delivering the notorious “missed call” is testimony to the failure of ETC to reach a broad customer base.

The single ISP is also to blame in lack of Internet speed and availability. Even Somali has mustered three competitors.
 

There are plenty of private operators who have successfully penetrated poor nations’ markets and turned profits while at the same time reaching a broad customer base as many fair-minded development thinkers would like to see. This infrastructure development is indispensable for the economic growth the current regime is banking on as evidenced in its deficit spending, loose monetary policy and overall inflationary policies.

The government can even direct this sector’s development path through creative regulations and directed tax schemes that provide an incentive system concurrent with whatever it aims to achieve. But full ownership is surely not the way for it to best serve the public in telecom, or any sector for that matter.
 

The 80 million and growing population represents an attractive customer base many corporations would be quite eager to get a share of. Liberalisation is the only way to bring efficient services to this people. The worthy cause of opening telecom is probably an uphill battle until there is a voice for the free market with power in government.

The issue is broad based as such a wide section of the population is affected by telecom inadequacy. A potential political candidate could conceivably hold water on this issue alone. A strong voice for telecom liberalisation is long overdue.