Ethio Telecom has announced a bold capital expenditure plan to significantly expand its network and digital infrastructure, seeking to reaffirm its market leadership.
The state-owned telecom behemoth intends to increase its total customer base to an astounding 100 million by 2028 to solidify its dominance in a liberalising market. Thanks to this strategic vision and significant investment, the company’s total assets will have increased from 332 billion Birr to an estimated 851 billion Birr by the end of the three-year strategy period.
Ethio Telecom’s planned strategic investment
The investment is focused on several essential infrastructure goals, including revolutionising the country’s connectivity environment.
Increasing mobile coverage is a top priority to reach 85 per cent of the population with 4G. Thanks to the company’s plans to build 1,228 new mobile sites and add 7.6 million mobile network capacity, more Ethiopians will have access to high-speed data.
A significant fibre rollout, essential to modernising Ethiopia’s digital backbone, is at the heart of this new strategy. To give its 785,000 customers a better, more dependable connection, the company plans to replace their old copper lines with fibre-optic cables.
1,100 km of new backbone fibre will also be deployed to support future data demands and strengthen the national network. These investments will support the company’s expansion and goal of promoting digital transformation nationwide.
Deployment of Solar-on-Tower solutions
Techpression reported yesterday that the Ethiopian top telecom operator and Huawei deployed the first batch of Solar-on-Tower solutions in Africa commercially and is operating steadily.
With this partnership, Ethio Telecom enters a new stage in its quest for a low-carbon, environmentally friendly transition.
It will create a green network, promote clean energy applications, and establish a new standard for technology in African telecommunications.
The Solar-on-Tower solution creatively incorporates photovoltaic panels on telecom towers to solve the problems of scarce land and space for solar power system installation in urban areas.
Within two days of Ethio Telecom’s installation, the site could produce and consume its own solar energy.
The first batch of the Solar-on-Tower deployment has shown that the solar power supply at the sites can last up to four hours while reducing the use of diesel generators from six to two hours. This achieves a 40 per cent reduction in fuel consumption per site.
Deployment of the first-ever GigaAAU FDD tri-band Massive MIMO site in North Africa
Similarly, in partnership with Huawei, Ethio Telecom deployed the first-ever GigaAAU FDD tri-band Massive MIMO site in North Africa.
GigaAAU FDD Tri-Band Massive MIMO is a cutting-edge technology developed by Huawei that integrates three frequency bands (1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, and 2.6 GHz) into a single Active Antenna Unit (AAU).
This solution enables one-time tri-band deployment without increasing antennas, simplifying network expansion.
This groundbreaking solution greatly enhances Ethio Telecom’s network performance and user experience, making it a key driver of the region’s digital economy.