On 12 June 2019 Reuters reported exclusively that Ethiopia planned to award telecom licences to multinational mobile companies by the end of 2019, opening one of the world’s last major closed telecom markets and ending the Ethio Telecom monopoly, according to three people with direct knowledge of the process.
Sources told Reuters the preferred path was to auction two new licences with bidding opening in September and awards in December, because preparing a minority sale of Ethio Telecom was taking longer, and State Minister of Finance Eyob Tekalign said the government hoped many Ethiopians would use different SIM cards within a year, with Vodafone, MTN, Orange, and Etisalat among likely contenders.
Kept as telecom and investment archive, the Reuters exclusive dates the year-end licence timeline that followed Ethiopia’s broader telecom liberalisation drive in 2019.
Sources: Reuters