Selam Andrew,

As a diaspora currently in Germany i am always 'amused' to witness even telephone calls to Somalia is cheaper than to Addis.

I just don't get it why the government doesn't allow private telecommunication companies to operate in the country or sale out some branches of the government owned ETC to private companies to bring about more copetetion ,bringing some effiecent survices to the customer.Looks like the government is comfortable with ETC.

It is frustrating.

Ah, but certainly with the way the economy is booming, it's just seconds away that the prices quoted will be affordable to many, many Ethiopians....

Seriously -- when the only thing you prize is control, in any and every form, what is the upside to making access to any kind of information, even to a tiny elite, more available? Besides, by trumpeting the mere existence of broadband (and then of "affordable" shared DSL) your favorite state media organs and mine did their work -- what does it matter that, practically speaking, it's not really true at all, as long as it has been said (and probably noted by the people who make up interntional annual reports)?

And what was all this over the weekend about some kind of "virtual Internet" set up that is on the horizon? I couldn't make head nor tail of it....

Dear Andrew,

The ETC is one gigantic unefficient organization. The goverment is too stubborn to partly, if not totally, privatise it. They consider it as a big money machine. Infact, it was Dr. Kassu who said ETC is "a cow that never stops giving milk and they would not in any near future privatise it".
I do not know why they do not want to accept the fact that ETC is profitable because of its mononoply and because it is mostly a rent collecting organiztion. But then again EPRDF has the habit of not coming to terms with reality.
In ETC, they squander money for this and that. In addition, in ETC they tend to exaggerate their achievements and as if this is not enough, they celebrate prematurely. That is exactly what happened with this DSL thing. They always tell us whatever they installed or are installing is state of the art, or is the first of its kind in Africa, ...so on. But we have not seen that much of a progress.
Any hu, the solution is in the hands of the goverment(as is the soultion of most of Ethiopia's problems right now). May EPRDF stop being a jackass and start acting as a goverment!!

Well since our economy is booming, the way I look at it everyone in Ethiopia will have broadband connection at home very soon. Maybe for foreigners like you it might get a bit expensive but not for the locals who are getting rich thanks for the wise leadership of his Excellency PM Meles. Who knows your asylum claim might get accepted and you will become a beneficiary like our people, what do you think? don't you think the government can arrange something for you so that you can get paid for having an Internet connection at you home? trust me everything is possible in his Excellency's land. He will hear your complaint and address them quickly.

I'm not sure if DSL should be a priority to the Government when the country is still lacking access to clean water, electricity and etc. I would rather they focus on electricity and running water for the rest of the country than internet connection for the rich.

ETC's motto goes "Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation: Always at your service". Well I got them a new one, how about "Always at Your Nerves!"?

Hi Andrew
It was such shocking price by ETC. Just for comparison, I pay for my 100MB/s internet connection 2000 yen(148birr)in Japan. it is so sad story from ETC.

Hi Andrew,

I am one of the people who visit your blog site frequently and thank you for the service. You have been giving us valuable information. It is great. But recently, you claimed you are not an economist and you keep throwing some ideas as an economist regardless of Ethiopia development. Don't you think that is wrong? As your people said, little knowledge is very dangerous. Are you really talking from your heart or being an instrument for someone else, like enemy of Ethiopian people?
As independent person you can talk about the inside story of ETC and their service if you can get the right information. I personally advocate to license private company to do part of the ETC infrastructure. That helps to reduce cost and to have efficient service. But comparing two different countries on single issue …. That is wrong unless I have a mission………..
Alex

Alex,

I think the 'virtual internet' stuff they were talking about refers to a program of giving licenses to individuals to start their own ISP's in their communities using Tele's infrastructure.
I think it's just an effort to make impressions of their plans to privatize the telecom sector which won't 'really' happen for a long time.

But about this program, I very much doubt if it would have benefits for the consumer any different from what's available now. How would the entrepreneur starting his own little ISP make his profits?.. on top ETC's tariffs?... what good is that as long as one has direct access to the ETC service?

But I think if they were to allow full privatization of the ISP business. We'd have been able to see some real changes soon... They had stated many times that there are great dangers to future local companies in allowing foreign giants to come in and have a sit at the table. I agree with that. We're not ready for the likes of Vodafone to come swinging in before there's a sembelance of some local PRIVATE telecom industry.... but they're not helping develop it either... they should allow citizens (at the beginning) to share the market and develop skills (much like the banking sector)... then in the long run future companies too...

But these guys are just too myopic at times. They actually had the nerve to say that there is not enough educated workforce in the private sector to take over ANY telecom role!... it's a shame.

This's a company that disabled all SMS services when people began sending out mass-messages of a political nature... denouncing the ruling party.
I mean, how silly is that?... wouldn't it make more sense to disable the option of sending a message to a huge list or the entire network? Not that that's justified in anyway...but if they had to do it, they could have done that....
Now I wonder if they will ever feel secure enough to allow privately-owned telecom companies anytime this decade... I mean they take a long look at what the vast majority of ethiopian content on the web is like... hey they can't afford to have such type of content hosted in the homeland!... I was thinking of starting up an ISP with a sort of a web-portal feature. Much like what AOL is... to provide online services for customers in Addis in addition to giving access to the internet. But hey...I hear they go LOL!!! on u if you apply for a license...

Alex,

You said, "it's just seconds away that the prices quoted will be affordable to many, many Ethiopians...."

Did you read this
-------------------------------------
Set-up cost:
ETB 103,406 (£6,763/US$11,849)

Monthly charge
ETB 41,479 (£2,713/US$4,753)
--------------------------------------

Are you on crack? One can't afford this even in the USA.

Andrew,

Is this fibre optic broadband? In the west household 'broadband' usually refers to cable or something. Since Ethiopia does not have cable, I'm assuming you're comparing cable and fibre optic.

Although, the thought of 2mbps on fibre optic is distressing.

Frustrating indeed. What surprises me one of the comments from ex infrastructure minster Dr Kassu Ilala. He said ETC will not be privatized saying who sells a milking cow. You can sense what he means.

I recently came across a report written by a Short term International Consultant on ICT, through a World Bank Assisted Development Project. The author recommended to the government that they allow the setting up of private ISPs, using a new technology for local broadband networks (or something along those lines). This could be the virtual internet mentioned by Alex above.
The report makes for interesting reading as the consultant found that ETC technical staff were of top standard. The bottleneck was more on the administrative/management side. You can find a link to the report here:

http://topics.developmentgateway.org/elearning/rc/ItemDetail.do~1045155?itemId=1045155

PS - Andrew, as a ferenji who spent 2 years in Ethiopia, I enjoy your blog and your observations.

PPS - and for the Alex who said "you claimed you are not an economist and you keep throwing some ideas as an economist regardless of Ethiopia development"...I think Andrew is being what's called 'ironic'. You need a sense of humour to get it!!

Alex,

I read your comment again. Sorry. I misconstrued (or maybe stopped reading in the beginning). I guess it was me who was on crack ...

Alex,

I just read your comment again. I apologize.I misconstrued (or stopped reading at the beginning). I guess it was I who was on crack ...

This componies exist as to an instrument to rob the people. The cllect millions unearned mony for the worst service in the world. This must be the most autragious pricing schime in the world.

By the way this is not the only institution that remained on the hand of the government for the soul purpose of robing the people. Ethiopian shipping lines is another compony that Robs the entire natio on behalf of the govermnent.

The schme is like this. Ethiopian shipping lines has has the monopoly transporting goods that are destined to Ethiopia. But it does not have the capcity. Therefor it sells its rights to other shipping componies and collects millions selling only paper. Ultimately making Ethiopia the most expencive country to transport goods to. And of cource all the cost is transfered ultimately to the poor of Ethiopia.

Andrew,
As a person in Telecom business outside Ethiopia. Your obersvation is to the point and I loved your coverage as always. Telecom is perhaps not viewed as one of the infrastuctures to reform as part of poverty reduction by World bank and others that finance the Ethiopian government to guage where aid money is being spent.

Tyrel

-------------------------------------
Set-up cost:
ETB 103,406 (£6,763/US$11,849)

Monthly charge
ETB 41,479 (£2,713/US$4,753)

-------------------------------------

Some folks are a bit crackish. With the setup and first month fee, one could buy a nice piece of land in the outskirts of Addis, which would appreciate in value over a year or two and sell at a profit, as opposed to spending that kind of money to surf websites and check email at warp speed.