December 6, 2004

             The Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) in cooperation with Huawei Technologies in Ethiopia officially inaugurated the commercial launch of CDMA Wireless Local Loop (WLL) Network on 2^nd December 2004 at Sheraton Addis.

          In his opening address, Ato Reta Dese, Telecom Business Services Department Provisional Deputy General Manager said that the CDMA WLL Network which operates with 800 mega hertz, functions in Addis Ababa, Jimma, Fitche and Wolkitte. The installation, testing and commissioning of the Addis Ababa CDMA WLL network system started a month ago and 1,431 subscribers have got the service so far and 34,000 customers are expected to be beneficiaries of the system in Addis Ababa before the end of the current fiscal year, Ato Reta said, adding that the system deployed in Addis Ababa has a PDSN system for internet and data service for about 2,000 subscribers ranging from 19.2 kb/s - 153.6 kb/s.

          According to Ato Reta, ETC has not encountered any technical problem with the system deployed so far and technical employees of the corporation have shared experience on effective operation of the system.

          Mr. Yi Zonghua, Economic and Commercial Counselor of Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia on his part said that the successful completion of the project is attributed to the unreserved effort of the ETC and the Huawei Company. He also said that the successful completion of the project marks the ever-growing relations between Ethiopia and China. He finally expressed his country's commitment to continue a further strengthening of cooperation with Ethiopia.

          Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Tao Jingwen, Senior Vice President of Huawei Technologies indicated that the CDMA WLL network system helps ETC to provide services without the requirement for wire installation and it contributes to make the corporation a vibrant telecommunication operator in Ethiopia.

          The event was attended by ETC General Manager, Ato Tesfaye Biru and by Dr. Engineer Hailu Ayele, ETC Board Member and AAU Instructor as well as by other invited ETC officials and Chinese diplomats and experts.

          It was learnt that ETC's CDMA WLL network infrastructure provides various supplementary services such as call waiting, call transfer call barring, three party call, etc. 

         December 6, 2004