Ecofin reported Ahmed gave the green light to open up the monopoly market at a meeting with regulator Ethiopia Communications Authority, the Ministry of Finance, state-owned Ethio Telecom and members of the Privatisation Advisory Council. According to Ecofin, new entrants in the market will be allocated frequencies of 10MHz and 20MHz in the 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum band, while the incumbent Ethio Telecom will receive 15MHz and 35MHz. In the 2100MHz and 2600MHz bands, all operators will receive 20MHz. Privatisation of Ethiopia’s telecoms market has been in the works since 2018, but the process has been delayed by issues related to the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Ethio Telecom has 45 million connections, with 32 per cent of the country’s population subscribing to the network.

Source: Ethiopian News November 04, 2020 11:03 UTC