France Telecom to Manage Ethiopian Phone Network

Published on: 1st Jan 1970: 1:33am

France Telecom has signed a two-year contract to take over the management of Ethiopia's state-owned monopoly telecoms network, the recently rebranded Ethio Telecom. Depending on meeting performance standards, France Telecom will earn up to EUR 30 million (US$40 million) for the two-year contract.

Accounting systems will be modernized and new services introduced, Ethio Telecom chief executive officer Jean-Michel Latute said.

"The Ethiopian government has found it necessary to involve the world-class telecom operator with viable experience and capability in the sector so as to render world standard telecom services," said Debretsion G/Mariam, Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

Speaking on the reborn of ETC, he also noted that Ethio Telecome is a new company designed from scratch but uses all the resources of the former ETC. "All the current employees of ETC will be on the payroll until the last person will be redeployed in the new company," said Debretsion, assuring several thousands of employees of ETC, which has not yet get job in the Ethio Telecom at the moment.

He also confirmed that the government has no plans to privatise the company.

The state owned monopoly had an estimated 3.85 million subscribers at the end of June 2010, which according to figures from the Mobile World equates to a population penetration level of just 2.9%.

On the web: Mobile World - Ethio Telecom

 

Tags: [ethiopia telecom]  [ethio telecom]  [france telecom]  [telecom]  [Ethiopia]