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Ethiopia Aspires to Raise Mobile Subscribers to 64 Million in Five Years

Ethiopia aspires to raise its mobile subscribers up to 64 million and internet subscribers to 46 million in GTP II period, Ethiopian News Agency.

Currently, Ethiopia has 40 million mobile subscribers and 10 million internet subscribers, it was learnt.

Ethiopia’s plan was disclosed at the four-day International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Regional Workshop on ICT Indicators and Measurements for Africa which kicked off on October 27, 2015.

State Minister of Information Communications and Technology Getachew Negash at the opening of ITU Workshop said by 2020 the number of mobile subscribers is expected to reach 103.7 million and internet subscribers 56 million in the Second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP-2) period.

From the 56 million internet subscribers, 39 million are expected to use broadband internet, Getachew stated.

Over the past 10 years Ethiopia has undertaken two large scale telecom infrastructure and service expansion projects at USD 3.1 billion cost. Consequently, these projects have paid off with noticeable advancements in the telecom industry, Getachew emphasized.

In 2015, there are over 7 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, up from 738 million in 2000. There are 3.2 billion people using the internet, two billion of these live in developing countries.

Representatives of national statistic agencies, ICT ministers and ICT experts from 193 member countries worldwide are participating at workshop.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency