Ethiopia is one of the few countries whose telecoms industry is fully owned and controlled by the government. The state-controlled Ethio Telecom’s monopoly is expected to end by the close of 2019. The Ethiopian government is expected to award telecom licenses by the end of the current year. The planned liberalisation of the sector is pushed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The new operators are expected to launch services in 2020
The competing major players in the telecom sector include Vodafone-controlled Vodacom, Airtel Africa, South Africa’s MTN and France’s leading telecommunications company Orange. Orange is hoping that its financial services provider Orange Money, which offers money transfers and payment services will support the group in the race to penetrate Ethiopia’s market, There have been reports that the government was considering split of Ethio Telecom between an infrastructure provider and telecom services provider. However, some reports have written it off as unviable.
