ETC To Give Mobile Access to 200,000 Subscribers After One Year

Addis Ababa, April 2(ENA)--The Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) and Chinese Company known as ZTE signed on Wednesday an over 29 million USD agreement enabling the former to give mobile access to 200,000 subscribers.

ETC Deputy General Manager, Wondimu Girma and ZTE International marketing vice president, Mingfeng Ding signed the agreement.

Wondimu who is also manger of mobile service told reporters after the signing ceremony that ZTE won the corporation's bid competing with four other companies.

He said the Mobile service expansion project to be carried out in three phases would give mobile access to clients in the metropolis and 12 other major towns existing in the country.

In the first and second phase of the project, 100,000 mobile lines would be ready for sale to subscribers in Addis Ababa with in eight months.

Wondimu said 100,000 clients from the stated number of towns would get access to the service in the second and third phases.

The GSM mobile would also provide voice mail and short messaging service, among others.

Currently ETC has about 51,800 mobile subscribers.

The expansion project would be completed in a period of one year.

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