Yechalal! ...... Awoooooooo .....Yechalal! - Amxambe

As an IT guy two things take my attention, Telecom and Banking system. I don't understand the banking system of Ethiopia why it's not liberalized and monopoly of Telecom also... 

Ethiopian Telecommunication’s monopoly enables it to charge $35 for a mobile-phone SIM card, which is required to obtain a mobile-phone number. In neighboring Somalia and Kenya, which have private mobile services, cards cost less than $5.

A 1-megabyte per second Internet connection costs more than $2,000 a month in Ethiopia. In South Africa, the continent’s biggest economy, a similar service costs between 600 rand ($59) and 760 rand, according to the http://www.mybroadband.co.za Web site.

“In Ethiopia, if there is any problem I don’t think it’s the price,” said Birru. “It’s the quality of the service. This has to be improved. And to improve this I don’t think it would be wise to privatize it.”

Ethiopia’s government is reluctant to sell the company because it is profitable and is expanding services to rural areas, Newai Gebre-Ab, Prime MinisterMeles Zenawi’s top economic adviser, said yesterday in an interview.

Cash Generator

The company is “generating a lot of money and that money is being put to good use for development of infrastructure,” Gebre- Ab said.

Birru also said the Ethiopian central bank lacks the capacity to regulate large foreign financial institutions. The country is also unsure whether foreign banks would play a positive economic role in the country. As a result, the country is unlikely to liberalize the financial-services industry.

“At this stage, given the capacity that we have in terms of managing things and supervising them at the National Bank level, I don’t see why we’d allow that,” he said.

Ethiopia’s three state-run retail banks control about two- thirds of the capital in the country’s banking industry, according to the National Bank of Ethiopia. Until last year, no bank in Ethiopia could process MasterCard transactions. Banks in the country are also reluctant to lend to businesses that cannot provide real estate as collateral.

Three private banks in Ethiopia- Awash International Bank S.C., Nib International Bank S.C and United Bank S.C. - on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding which would enable them to launch a wide-reaching ATM machine and point of sales (POS) terminals network through which customers can withdraw cash and make payments for purchases.
The agreement is said to be the first significant cooperation between competing banks in Ethiopia. Three banks have agreed in principle to establish a ATM network called Fettan. The Ethiopian based IT company, Offshoring 2.0 Technology Services PLC, is under consideration to operate and manage the Fettan ATM network.

The Fettan ATM consortium, to be formed, will develop detailed business proposals to be discussed with each bank’s board prior to final decisions on investments and service implementation. According to Berhanu Getaneh, president of United Bank, it took the banks three months to reach this agreement. “It is like a marriage. It is really a long process,” Berhanu told reporters.

If everything goes as planned, Fettan ATM will install over 140 ATM machines and over 340 POSs across Ethiopia. There will be one ATM at every branch of the consortium banks, all domestic airports serviced by commercial service, shopping complexes and merchants. The total investment is estimated at 40 million birr.

Amerga Kassa, president and board member of Nib Bank, comments, “There is no single bank in Ethiopia that can afford to provide extensive geographical coverage and access, or create the know-how to do this properly, as a result this will lead to slow acceptance of card payment system by consumers and it makes total business sense to unite.”

The banks said that other banks and micro-finance institutions are well come to join the consortium.

Google Foundation to support competition designed to help small and medium businesses thrive and expand to create jobs, revenue and wealth

WCDMA-3G mobile phone service is available now!
The Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation is pleased to announce to its customers
that it has launched the provision of the state of the art prepaid WCDMA 3G mobile phone
service in Addis Ababa.
To get access to 3G WCDMA service a customer is required to buy a 3G WCDMA
mobile apparatus and WCDMA SIM card.
In addition to providing regular mobile phone services the 3G -WCDMA mobile
technology enables customers to:
• make video telephony or video call in areas within a network coverage.
• get email services as well as download picture, music, video and similar data by
browsing the internet.
• use a wider range of value added services.

The Corporation will launch Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Voice Mail
Service (VMS) shortly.

The WCDMA network bandwidth supports bi-directional peak data rates from 144Kbs
up to 384 kbps.

Currently the 3G- WCDMA mobile network coverage is limited to fortynine areas of
Addis Ababa.

For internet access customers are required to configure their mobile apparatus’ access
point name to “etc.com”.

Customers can get access to the 3G- WCDMA service in the Corporation’s sales centers
as well as mega dealers.
For further information please visit the Corporation’s website!
Network coverage areas of the WCDMA-3G mobile phone service
The Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation has launched the provision of the state
of the art prepaid WCDMA-3G mobile phone service in most parts of Addis Ababa.
The WCDMA-3G network coverage areas of Addis Ababa are listed as follows:
BOLE, BOLE AIR PORT AREA, DABI BUILDING (SAY PASTRY AREA), BOLE
MICHAEL OLOMPIA, FLAMINGO, 5TH POLICE STATION, MESEKEL SQUARE,
RAILWAY STATION AREA, ALTA BUILDING (MEXICO AREA), AWRARIS
HOTEL, MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCE, NYALA MOTOR AREA,FILWHA,ETC
HEAD OFFICE AREA, BLACK LION HOSPITAL AREA, YEKA, BEL AIR HOTEL
AREA, KEBENA, ARAT KILO, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, COCA
MAZORIA AND ABNET AREA, RAS AMBA HOTEL AREA, GARAD BUILDING
AREA, TEKLE HAYMANOT LEYLA BUILDING AREA, CHIDTERA, MERKATO,
AMANUEL CHURCH AREA, ARADA, ENQULAL FABRICA OR RAS DESTA, ERI
BEKENTU, KELIFA BUILDING AREA, GOJAM BERENDA,ADDIS KETEMA,
MOTERA HOTEL AREA, MEDHANEALEM SCHOOL AREA,ENTOTO SCHOOL
AREA, GOTERA, GOFA, KALITI NILE INSURANCE AREA, ETC TRAINING
CENTER AREA, TESHALE GARAGE AREA, LAFTO HANA MARIAM, RAS BIRU
AREA, AFIRCAN UNION AREA,SARBET,ALEM BANK AREA.
In areas with no WCDMA network coverage and video call services, customers can use
regular voice call mobile services.
For further information please visit the Corporation’s website!
Service charge of WCDMA 3G service
The Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation has launched the provision of the state
of the art prepaid WCDMA-3G mobile phone service in most parts of Addis Ababa.
The 3G -WCDMA mobile network enables customers to get access to video telephony or
video call service, internet service and wider ranges of value added services in addition to regular
mobile services.
WCDMA-3G Voice & Video Call tariff
WCDMA-3G mobile internet service charge
Service Type Mode of service charge (Birr per Kilo
byte)
Mobile internet 0.01
• 15 % VAT will be added to all service charges.
• For further information please visit ETC’s website!
http://www.ethionet..et
Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation
Mode of service charge (Birr per minute)
Local call International call
Service Type Regular or
Peak hour
tariff
Off-Peak hour
tariff Djibouti Rest of the world
Voice call 0.72 0.30 7.72 10.72
Video call 2.70 2.70 28.95 32.16