Three Chinese firms have agreed to spend 1.5 billion dollars (1.2 billion euros) upgrading Ethiopia's telephone network between now and 2010, the Ethiopian telecommunications ministry said on Tuesday. "Three Chinese companies have agreed to invest 1.5 billion dollars in Ethiopia to expand the existing phone infrastructure over the next four years," Abdurahim Ahmed, communication division manager at the Ethiopian Ministry of Telecommunication, told AFP.
"The plan aims at increasing the number of mobile services from 1.5 million today to 7 million and that of fixed telephone network from one million to 4 million," he added.
The Chinese investment forms part of a 2.4 billion dollar (1.9 billion euro) plan by the Ethiopian government to improve the country's telecoms infrastructure.
Aside from the upgrade of mobile and fixed-line telephone services, the government also plans to increase the size of the country's fibre-optics network. At present there are 4,000 kilometres (2,485 miles) of fibre optic cable in Ethiopia. By 2010 the government hopes to increase that figure to 10,000 kilometres (6,214 miles).
The three Chinese firms – ZTE Corporation, Huawei Technologies et the Chinese International Telecommunication Construction Corporation – were chosen for the Ethiopia contract from among eight international telephone operators including Eriksson, Nokia and Siemens, Ahmed said.
Source: Agence France-Presse
