Efforts are ongoing to attain the rural telecom access within five kilometers radius of service target this fiscal year, Ethio Telecom said.

Ethio-Telecom Corporate Communication Officer, Abdurahim Mohammad said rural telecom service has currently attained 96 percent for the target, Walta Information Center (WIC) reported.

“And efforts are underway to achieve the coverage to 100% within the remaining months of the budget year,” he said.

The rural community had been travelling 40-50 kilometers to access telecom services, but now it is reduced to five kilometers, he noted.

Ethio Telecom has built 725 stations only in Addis Ababa for the last 20 years to widen its service and improve network quality, he said.

According to Abdurahim, damages on fiber optic cables and power interruptions are some of the difficulties that contributed to lesser expansion and network quality improvement endeavors.

Ethio Telecom has 31.5 million customers throughout Ethiopia and provides mobile, fixed line, internet, data, broadband, narrowband and GPRS services.

Source Walta Information Center