There remains a monopoly in almost all areas of Ethiopia’s telecoms sector. The Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) launched GSM services in 1999. 1.9 million subscriptions were recorded in March 2008, while 120 000 internet users were recorded at the time. Market penetration is still very low, but there have been huge efforts to roll out a national fibre backbone and wireless access networks, which have resulted in a significant rise in growth of all market segments. Further important investments into fixed, mobile and Internet services, totalling US$4 billion, are planned for the five years to 2012. The government is planning to privatise the national operator, ETC, and initiate competition in mobile and Internet services.
