Best Practices

Newsletter 11

Harnessing Information Technology

The communication sector and information network of the country is changed for the good. Now gone are the days in which physical presence is indispensable to handle the teaching learning process. The introduction of broadband VSAT technology in 1996 E.C. has for the first time pioneered connecting all secondary schools in the country to have access to educational programs through satellite. This is especially of a paramount importance to students in rural Ethiopia who, in the past, did not have access to the technology.

Local woreda administrations Agriculture Research Centers as well as corporate organizations and financial institutions have also become beneficiary of the fastest way of information transfer.
In deed, the ever changing information technology is playing crucial role in the socio- economic development of the country.

Telephone service is the brainchild of the Scottish inventor, Alexander Grahm Bell. Gram Bell opened a new chapter in the civilization of mankind with the innovation of the technology.
Emperor Minilik II of Ethiopia was instrumental in modernizing Ethiopia including the introduction of telephone technology to the country. It took Ethiopia less than two decades to use telephone after the first invention by Grahm Bell.

Minilik II, with the technical support of the Swiss national, Alfred Elg made Ethiopia part of the scientific innovation in 1893. The 447km telephone line installation was executed between the city of Harrar and Addis Ababa. In 1897 the Harrar - Addis Ababa telephone line installation was completed and work was started on that of the Dire Dawa - Djibouti. Up until 1914 the capital's subscribers were only 100.
In 1934, 170 towns and villages became beneficiaries of telecom service.

When the Imperial Telecommunication Board of Ethiopia was established in 1953 with full provision of administrative and financial autonomy to undertake the expansion of telecommunication services through out the nation, the whole venture started again to pick up speed.
Even though the institution was granted full autonomy, its organizational right has been violated during the military regime. According to Abdurahim Ahmed, Communication Affairs Division Manager with the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation, there were only 150,000 telephone lines in the country until 1983 E.C with 70 percent of the subscribers in the capital.

The telecommunication service which was launched more than a century ago has now managed to attain its current status in widening its horizon in the delivery of quality telecom services and number of users. Telephone service, which was once a luxury in the national place, is now a common service in various farms in many corners of the country.

The Ethiopian Telecommunications corporation /ETC/ is currently engaged in the implementation of multifaceted telecom projects aimed at expanding the telecom industry across the nation. To realize its vision of benefiting the public with Information and Communication Technology/ICT/, ETC is engaged in expanding telecom infrastructure all over the country on a sustainable and equitable manner.

The government believes that the expansion of telecom services across the nation is vital for all-rounded and sustainable development. The introduction of modern telecommunication technology has been instrumental in realizing the provision, among others, of mobile telephone, wireless telephone and broad band intrenet services since 1990.

The telecom service delivery prior to 1990 was not only insignificant, but also restricted to 512 major towns of the country with only 125,398 customers benefiting from the fixed telephone lines. However, after seven years, the corporation has managed to register remarkable achievements providing access to fixed telephone lines to 610,347 subscribers. This number has brought the total number of lines closer to 800,000.

The corporation has also succeeded in enabling all woredas or districts of the country access fully digitalized telephone services. The number of towns subscribing to fully automatic telephones services has reached 243.

In its inception in 1991 E.C. mobile telephone service was limited to 6,740 customers in Addis Ababa and its environs. Now nearly half a million people have become beneficiaries of the services. ETC has envisioned benefiting close to 2.5 million people delivering access to the service, which would make the number of mobile subscribers to excel that of fixed line users.

ETC has allocated huge investment for the execution of telecommunication projects. The capital has shown a dramatic increase over the past ten years.

Table -1- Investment Capital Spent

Internet services have a pivotal role to play in ensuring access to information. A decade ago, like other services only one thousand customers in the capital were beneficiaries of internet with Narrow Band Network.

Nevertheless, with the installation of Broadband Network this figure has reached 17,500. With regard to the Broadband Multimedia Service, video conference, telemedicine, distance education and local area network (LAN) have become possible and Ethiopia is part of the international tele industry.

Even though the development in the sector is remarkable, without being complacent the government has intensified efforts to harness the information technology. ETC, seeking to exploit modern technology as a tool in the acceleration of development of the country, is engaged in implementing huge telecom projects all over the country as the part of the effort to realize the agriculture-led industrial development of the country.