Internet from the Horn of Africa: Ethiopia Case Study

INTERNET FROM THE HORN OF AFRICA: ETHIOPIA CASE STUDY

July 2002

INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION GENEVA, SWITZERLAND Foreword

This case study has been carried out in the framework of a series of Internet diffusion case studies currently being carried out by the ITU Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU), in collaboration with the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT). This case study was carried out with the assistance of the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organi- zation (CTO) and the Department for International Development (DFID), United King- dom. Mike Jensen and Claudia Sarrocco wrote the report and carried out the field research in Addis Abeba from 10 to 15 March 2002. We would like to thank Ato Fanta Adane of the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) and Ato Abebe Checkol of the British Council in Addis Abeba, whose valuable information and comments greatly assisted us in the field research and in the writing of the report. Our thanks go also to Joanna Goodrick, Nathalie Delmas, Tim Kelly, Mike Minges and Vanessa Gray, for their inputs to the study.

We also thank the State Minister of Telecommunications, the director of the Ethiopian Telecommunication Agency, the General Manager of the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation, as well as to those we interviewed for dedicating time to answering our questions.

The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of the International Telecommunication Union or its members, of the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization or of the Government of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia. More details can be found on the ITU website at: http://web.itu.int/osg/spu/casestudies.

ii Contents

1. Country background ...... 1 1.1 Overview ...... 1 1.2 Demography ...... 2 1.3 Economy ...... 3 1.4 Human development ...... 4 1.5 Political ...... 4

2. Communication technology status ...... 6 2.1 History and status of telecommunications in Ethiopia...... 6 2.2 Network and capacity ...... 6 2.3 Regulation and policy-making ...... 12 2.4 Privatization ...... 13 2.5 Licensing ...... 13 2.6 Sector liberalization ...... 14 2.7 International traffic and revenues ...... 16

3. Internet strategy and policy ...... 18 3.1 Status of the Internet ...... 18 3.2 Pricing structure for Internet services ...... 20 3.3 Regulatory status of Internet ...... 23 3.4 Universal access ...... 24

4. Information and communication technologies and the nation26 4.1 Education ...... 26 4.2 Health ...... 28 4.3 E-commerce and trade ...... 28 4.4 Government ...... 29 4.5 NGOs and international organizations ...... 29

5. Conclusions and recommendations ...... 31 5.1 State of the Internet in Ethiopia ...... 31 5.2 Sector liberalization strategy for Government ...... 32 5.3 National strategies and policies to increase Internet diffusion .. 34 5.4 Ensuring low Internet access tariffs ...... 35 5.5 Universalizing access ...... 36 5.6 Sectoral support strategies ...... 36 5.7 General operational strategies for ETC and ETA ...... 39 5.8 Other observations ...... 39

Annex 1: Framework dimensions ...... 40 Annex 2: Meeting Schedule ...... 43

iii Figures

1.1 Map of Cambodia ...... 1 2.1 The world's most wireless place ...... 5 2.2 Cambodia telecom market ...... 8 4.1 Young but not well-educated ...... 25 5.1 State of Internet in Cambodia ...... 33

Tables

1.1 Population indicators ...... 2 1.2 Human Development Indicators ...... 3 2.1 Cambodian telecom service operators ...... 7 2.2 Prefix soup ...... 9 2.3 Cambodia's international call tariffs ...... 9 2.4 Fixed telephone tariffs ...... 11 2.5 Mobile pricing ...... 11 3.1 Cambodia's Internet players ...... 15 3.2 Dial-up Internet pricing ...... 17 3.3 Cambodia's Internet connections ...... 19 4.1 Cambodian government online ...... 23 4.2 Cambodia at school ...... 26

Boxes

3.1 The international development community, Cambodia and the Internet ...... 14 3.2 The tribulations of the Khmer font ...... 20 4.1 The Prime Minister on ICT ...... 24 4.2 E-villages and E-charity: A conundrum ...... 27 4.3 KIDS in the e-café ...... 30 4.4 E-archiving: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it” ...... 30

iv Acronyms

AVU African Virtual University BITE Bringing Internet To Ethiopia COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa ESTC Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission ETA Ethiopian Telecommunication Agency ETC Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation ETTI Ethiopian Telecommunications and Training Institute ICT Information and Communication Technologies ISPs Internet Service Providers OAU Organization for African Unity PadisNET Pan African Documentation and Information Service Network UNECA UN Economic Commission for Africa VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol VSAT very Small Aperture Satellite

1. Country background

1.1 Overview the east, by Kenya on the south and by Sudan to the west (see Figure 1). The Federal Republic of Ethiopia, Its territory, of about 1.3 million known in the past under the biblical square kilometers, consists of a name of Abyssinia, is one of the most massive highland complex of ancient independent countries in the mountains and plateaus, divided by world. It has its historical origins in the Great Rift Valley running from the Empire of Ethiopia, which southeast to northeast, and according to legend was founded by surrounded by lowlands, steppes or Menelik I, son of King Solomon and semi-desert. Queen Sheba. Ethiopia is the only country in Africa which has never been Although a landlocked country today, colonized. For this reason it stands as Ethiopia used to have access to the a symbol for other African countries sea through Eritrea, formerly one of and has been chosen to host its provinces. After the referendum of important regional African institutions, 1993, however, Eritrea became such as the Organization for African independent, leaving Ethiopia without Unity (OAU) and UN Economic a coastline. Due to recent conflicts Commission for Africa (ECA). with Eritrea, almost all of Ethiopia’s surface import/export traffic passes by Located on the Horn of Africa, in the road or rail through Djibouti. eastern part of the continent, Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the Ethiopia has extremely varied climatic northeast, by Djibouti and Somalia to conditions due to its location close to

Figure 1: Ethiopia

Source: CIA World Factbook 2001, http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/.

1 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

the equator and to the fact that most integration, and at the same time of the country lies at some creates additional need for improved 1,500 metres above sea level. The electronic communications. Only territory can be divided into three 21 per cent of the road network is main climatic zones: the cool zone, paved, with few interconnecting links where the temperature ranges from between adjacent regions and an zero to 16 degrees Celsius, the undeveloped feeder road network. As temperate zone, where most of the a result, large parts of Ethiopia are population lives, which is typically isolated and dependent on pack situated at between 1,500 and animals for transport. A basic rail 2,600 metres with averageservice links Addis Abeba with Djibouti temperatures of around 20 to via the eastern Ethiopian city of Dire 25 degrees, and the hot zone, mostly Dawa. Passenger and cargo air located in north east and south transport services are provided by eastern lowlands, where the climate Ethiopian Airlines. Its international is tropical and arid. The rainy season flights link the country with 43 cities is from April to September. However, on three continents, and its domestic there are many semi-desert areas and service links 38 airfields and the country has a history of severe 21 landing strips with Addis Abeba. drought. The last drought took place in 2000, and was considered one of 1.2 Demography the worst droughts of the last 15 years. It affected more than eight The first census in the country was million people in Ethiopia, causing carried out in 1984, when the severe famine and starvation in the population amounted to some country as a whole, with the worst of 42 million inhabitants, including the devastation affecting the Eritreans. In 1994, the date of the lowlands.1 second census, there were about 49.22 million inhabitants (excluding Transport is another major problem Eritrea). The growth rate of the last in Ethiopia. The country has the lowest ten years has been on average 2.7 per road density per capita in the world. cent a year, and in 2001 the population The poor development of this sector was estimated at about 65.4 million has hampered economic development inhabitants,2 making the country the and remains an obstacle to economic third most populous in Africa.

Table 1: Population indicators

1997 1998 1999

Total population 59’750’000 61’266’000 67’782’000 Population, female (% of total) 50 50 50 Rural population 84% 83% 83% Population growth 2.57% 2.51% 2.44% Illiteracy rate, adult total 65% 64% 63% Population density 60 61 63 Age distribution Population ages 0-14, total 27’587’526 28’410’646 29’184’940 Population ages 15-64, total 30’516’592 31’217’890 31’855’770 Population ages 65 and above, total 1’637’536 1’630’742 1’617’957

Source: World Development Indicators, World Bank.

2 1. Country background

There are six major ethnic groups in essentially State-owned and operated Ethiopia, each with its own language. economy, and began to rebuild the The official language of Ethiopia is institutions and infrastructure needed Amharic. However up to 286 different to lead the country’s development. dialects are spoken in the country and Since then, the country has there are 25 official languages of undertaken a programme of economic instruction. reform, aiming to stabilize and liberalize markets, and the Ethiopian The largest city is the capital, Addis Investment Authority and the Abeba, with a population of Ethiopian Privatization Agency have 2.5 million, followed by Dire Dawa, been established. In the same year, with 0.23 million. The majority of the the Government started selling State- population, around 83 per cent, lives owned enterprises, including the in rural areas. There are about power supply company. Ethiopia 12 million households in the country, issued new laws opening banking and with the average household consisting insurance to the domestic private of 5 people. sector and most State-owned retail shops, hotels, and restaurants are Ethiopia has a young population, with now private. To date, about only 2.9 per cent of the total over 180 government entities have been 65 years of age and about 45 per cent privatized. under 15. This is partly due to a female fertility rate of 6.8 per cent and an Ethiopia’s gross domestic product estimated life expectancy of just 43- (GDP) in 1999 stood at around 45 years (see Table 1). USD 6.5 billion, corresponding to about USD 620 per capita (in 1.3 Economy purchasing power parities), ranking it as one of the poorest countries in the On 28 May, 1991, the Transitional world. The Ethiopian economy is Government of Ethiopia took over an heavily dependent on agriculture,

Table 2: GDP per capita in PPP$ (selected African countries)

Countries 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

Botswana 5’843 6’189 6’554 6’569 6’872 Ghana 1’710 1’767 1’792 1’808 1’881 The Gambia 1’451 1’462 1’492 1’497 1’580 Central African Republic 1’128 1’076 1’106 1’125 1’166 Kenya 1’027 1’046 1’037 1’010 1’022 Uganda 999 1’069 1’081 1’094 1’167 Burkina Faso 836 875 896 916 965 Madagascar 801 793 786 776 799 Eritrea 787 825 822 880 881 Zambia 754 788 784 753 756 Rwanda 736 833 799 837 885 Mali 678 692 723 719 753 Mozambique 658 682 733 796 861 Ethiopia 563 610 630 595 628 Malawi 546 568 574 570 586 Tanzania 472 484 484 482 501

Source: World Development Indicators, World Bank.

3 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

which accounts for approximately In 1999 imports accounted for 50 per cent of the national GDP, 90 USD 1.3 million, and mainly per cent of exports and employs comprised machinery, manufactured 80 per cent of the workforce. Industry goods and chemicals, while exports, and manufacturing still have a minor which in 1998 totaled less than half role in the formal economy, accounting of imports, consisted of coffee, as well respectively for 11 and 7 per cent of as oil seeds, hides, skins, sesame GDP (1999 data).3 seeds, pulses, chat/qat, live animals, honey and beeswax, fruits and Most of the revenues from agriculture vegetables. are derived from coffee, which is estimated to constitute 60 per cent of To achieve long-term economic and national exports and contributes social development goals, and to feed 10 per cent of national GDP, providing a rapidly growing population, the a livelihood for more than 15 million Government of Ethiopia focuses on people, i.e. about 25 per cent of the agricultural development as the total population. catalyst for economic growth and is increasing reliance on free market From 1993-1998, the country forces and the private sector to achieved an annual average economic expand exports and supplant imports. growth rate of 6-7 per cent and an Ethiopia is a member of Common annual average inflation rate below Market for Eastern and Southern 4 per cent. Despite the wide reform Africa (COMESA).4 programme, the Ethiopian economy weakened in the late nineties, 1.4 Human development following a three-year drought and the conflict with Eritrea in 1999, during Ethiopia ranked 158 out of which increased military expenditure 162 countries in the UNDP’s 2001 further harmed the economy, Human Development Index. classified by the World Bank as Indicators of human development for ‘severely indebted’. Ethiopia also has the country are shown in the UNDP a large current account deficit report on the country at http:// resulting from a highly negative www.undp.org/hdr2001/indicator/. balance of trade and a high ratio of debt outstanding to exports and GDP. Ethiopia ranks very low in almost all In April 2001, Ethiopia, classified by the indicators, particularly in respect the UN as a least developed country to life expectancy and literacy rate, in (LDC), was permitted to reschedule which the country is among the last two-thirds of its international debt entries. This is also reflected in a high until 2004. human poverty index (HPI, see Table 3).This index measures deprivation in three main areas: longevity (percentage of people expected to die before age 40), Table 3: Human Poverty Index knowledge (percentage of adults who are illiterate), and standard of living (percentage of populations Sudan 37 without access to health services Tanzania 30 and to safe water, and of children under five who are under weight). Uganda 41 Mozambique 50 1.5 Political Ethiopia 56 Ethiopia has been through almost every form of government during the last century: the empire of Haile Source: UNDP Human Poverty Index, Selassie in the 1920s, the short- online at http://www.undp.org/ lived occupation by Italian armed povertyreport/. forces in 1936, Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu’s Marxist dictatorship

4 1. Country background

from 1974 until 1991, and finally the secede. The federal Government is current Federal Democratic Republic. responsible for foreign affairs, defence and economic policy, while the other The first democratic elections, both functions are delegated to the regions. federal and regional, were held in Regions are further divided into zones, 1995 and the Federal Democratic warada (districts), kebele Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) was finally (communities or farmer associations). declared on 22 August 1995, after a There are about 550 warada in the four-year transitional government: for country and government generally the first time in the country’s long and aims to reach down to this level. rich history, the Ethiopian peoples were living under a government of In the 2000 elections, the Ethiopian their own choosing, and had a strong People’s Revolutionary Democratic voice in government at the local, Front, the same party which brought regional, and federal levels. down the Government of Colonel Mengistu in 1991, won a majority in A Constitution was created, based on the House of People’s Representatives the Universal Declaration of Human with 472 seats out of a total of 548. Rights, political power was Since the Republic has been declared, decentralized and the country was new economic policies have been divided to nine regional brought into effect by the administrations (Tigre, Afatm, Government, with a view to Amaram, Oromia, Somali, revitalizing the country’s economy Benshangui, Gambela, Harer and through liberalization, privatization, Southern), which enjoy considerable and reorganization of different autonomy and have the right to economic sectors.

1 “Eyewitness: Where hunger reigns”, BBC News Online, 30 April 2000. Online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_731000/731316.stm. 2 Ethiopian Central Statistical Authority, Population and housing census of Ethiopia, Analysis Report, 1994. 3 The Statesman’s Yearbook 2002. 4 COMESA website: http://www.comesa.int/

5 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

2. Communication technology status

2.1 History and status of in the wake of the market reforms, telecommunications in the Government created a new Ethiopia separate regulatory body by Proclamation 49/1996, establishing Established over a century ago, the the Ethiopian Telecommunication Ethiopian Telecommunication Agency (ETA), which has the objective Corporation (ETC) is the oldest public of promoting the development of “high telecommunication operator (PTO) in quality, efficient, reliable and Africa. Although initially private, the affordable telecommunication company was placed under services”. government control at the beginning of the twentieth century, and was later The same year, by Regulation brought under the control of the 10/1996, the Council of Ministers set Ministry of Post and Communications. up the Ethiopian Telecommunication Already in 1952, telecommunication Corporation (ETC), to which all the services were separated from the rights and obligations of the former postal administration, and fell under Ethiopian Telecommunication the Ministry of Transport and Authority were transferred. ETC would Communications (today Ministry of operate as a public enterprise under Infrastructures). the authority/supervision of the ETA, with the principal duty of maintaining The first long-distance telephone line and expanding telecommunication in Ethiopia was established in 1894 services in the country and providing between Addis Abeba and Harar. The domestic and international telephone, network began to expand from then telex, telefax and other communi- on, extending to other cities in cation services. In this respect, it is Ethiopia. After the end of the war currently deemed by the Regulation against Italy, Ethiopia established the to be the only operator of any Imperial Board of Telecommunica- telecommunication related service, tions, whose activity was funded from including the provision of the Internet domestic sources and from the World and public phones. Bank. The Board had full financial and administrative autonomy and was in 2.2 Network and capacity charge of the provision and the expansion of telecommunication Notwithstanding improvements in services in Ethiopia. Today, the recent years, the telecommunication backbone network is constituted from network in Ethiopia is still among the a variety of microwave, satellite and least developed in the world: with also fiber optic links. International only 324’729 fixed lines in service access is provided by satellite and the in 2001, teledensity reached only PANAFTEL terrestrial microwave 0.54 per cent, despite the network, connecting Ethiopia to other 20 per cent growth realized in the Southern and Eastern African last two years (see Figure 3).1 countries via links to some Further improvements are foreseen neighbouring countries (see below). in 2002, when ETC is planning to connect 80’000 new lines. However, The Imperial Telecommunication there is a large difference among Board, which became the Ethiopian urban and rural areas, with about 60 Telecommunication Authority in 1981, per cent of telephones concentrated was placed in charge of both the in the capital city, accounting for less operation and regulation of than the three per cent of the total telecommunication services. In 1996, population.

6 2. Communication technology status

Figure 1: ETC transmission system chart

Source: ETC Transmission Division.

The domestic network backbone is Ethiopia to more than 20 countries based on microwave links, analogue through the PANAFTEL microwave or digital, connecting almost all the network, in particular to other regions of the country. Analogue lines Southern and Eastern countries are being gradually substituted with (Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and digital lines by ETC, which is Tanzania). Most other international developing several projects to extend traffic is catered for via the Intelsat digital links at least to the larger cities satellite earth station which currently in the country. To complete the has a capacity of 12’000 channels. national network, in 1994, four high- capacity (comprising 60 channels) For technical purposes, the Ethiopian DOMSAT (domestic satellite) ground territory has been divided by ETC into stations were installed in Addis Abeba, geographical zones, not all of which Humera, Mekele and Gode. correspond to administrative divisions. The zone enjoying the This network is relatively reliable, with highest degree of connectivity is, as most faults being due to power mentioned, the capital city and its interruptions. In Addis Abeba the surroundings, followed by the power network is down about once a southern and the eastern zones, week, while the situation is more where other large cities, Nazareth, difficult in the countryside. However, Dire Dawa and Harar, are located. The interruptions are usually brief, and the least-served area is in the southeast rate of failure not dissimilar from that (see Figure 2): here, the territory of neighbouring countries. consists of irregular terrain which is difficult to cover, and the—largely For its international terrestrial links, nomadic—population is too sparse to ETC operates a 155Mpbs digital justify the cost of microwave links. In microwave link to Sudan and a these circumstances, satellite 34Mbps link to Djibouti. A link with technology complements the Somalia is planned. There is also an terrestrial network: 100 Gilat FaraWay old 60-channel analogue link with 8 channels and 120 Gilat DialAway Kenya, while Eritrea’s analogue link (2-8 channels) VSATs, which can also was severed during the war and has be powered using diesel generators not yet been restored. The circuits link or solar panels, are currently in

7 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

operation in the country, extending provided in Addis Abeba, operating in communication services to rural areas 4 of the 6 zones which make up the and supplementing the service in city. However, this system, though areas around Addis Abeba. The ETC quicker to install, presents higher is planning to increase the number of costs and a shorter lifetime (5 to VSATs to 470 in the near future. 7 years), and uses a limited natural resource, the frequency spectrum. 2.2.1 Fixed lines Moreover, the current WLL speed in The national switching capacity is Ethiopia (9.6 Kbit/s) allows only voice 550’000 lines, of which about and fax communication, virtually 340’000, i.e. only 61 per cent, are excluding any Internet use. The currently in use. ETC announced plans system is therefore unlikely to be used in 1998 to add a further 750’000 lines widely in the country. over the next 10 years which would raise teledensity to about 1 per cent. There are expected to be 1’500 public A fixed-line capacity of about 440’000 coin/card phones in operation by 2002 is to be allocated to urban areas and 22’000 lines in ETCs public call (serving a total population of around offices. The number of clandestine 10 million) forecast for the end of phone shops (which charge a premium 2002. There is still a large unsatisfied over ETCs tariffs) is unknown, though demand, with a waiting list of 153’000 they can be in Addis Abeba. for fixed lines in February 2002. The average waiting time to obtain a fixed The provision of terminal equipment line varies depending on the type of is fully liberalized, subject to ETA type- customer: there are separate waiting approval which is required before ETC lists for business and residential users, can install a telecommunication line. with the latter having to wait for up Satellite phones are not allowed, to 8 years to obtain a telephone. except under exceptional circumstances. Frequency monitoring In some cases, WLL technology is is not yet carried out as ETA lacks the used to connect certain areas: necessary equipment. Direct-to- currently around 6’000 lines are home satellite television was not

Figure 3: Fixed and mobile lines network in Ethiopia and fixed-line growth rate in selected countries

Main Lines and Mobile Lines in Operation Main line growth rate 50% 400,000 Fixed 343,000 40% Mobile Kenya 300,000 30% 231,945 Uganda

200,000 20% 156,538 Tanzania 137,731 10% 100,000 40'000 Ethiopia 27'532 0% 17'727 0 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 -10% 1994 1996 1998 2000

Note: Figures are for fiscal year ending 8 July. Figures for 2002 are projections. Source: ITU World Telecommunication Indicators Database and Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation.

8 2. Communication technology status

allowed until quite recently, although typically paying bills four months later there have been many clandestine than the billed month (for example, installations. Recently, it became bills for November 2001 were being possible to obtain a TVRO licence, paid in March 2002). which costs Birr 1’000 for the initial application, and Birr 336 per year Nevertheless, the cost of the mobile (respectively about USD 115 and service is relatively affordable in USD 40). Ethiopia compared with other countries (See Table 4)—mobile to Directory services are updated every mobile calls are charged at 0.75 Birr 4 years. Mobile numbers and Internet per minute (about 9 US cents). The addresses will be listed in the initial subscription fee is still upcoming 2002 directory, however a relatively high, although the monthly web-based version is not currently rental is also below average planned. (see Figure 4). Perhaps surprisingly, the low tariff is not a barrier to 2.2.2 Mobile profitability, as is evidenced by In contrast to other developing or least comparing the service with Ghana’s, developed countries, in Ethiopia the which has 90’000 users with a higher use of mobile phones is not yet usage dimensioning than the ETC widespread. The first, and still the service (18m Erlangs in Ghana only, mobile service in the country is compared with 25m Erlangs for ETC) the GSM facility launched by ETC in and generates the same amount of 1999 under the name of “Ethio revenue as Ethiopia’s 30’000 users. Mobile”. ETC initially underestimated the market for mobile services, which Notwithstanding the evident rapidly reached its maximum capacity difficulty of ETC in satisfying the of 28’000 subscribers, at which point growing (quantitative and new subscriptions were suspended (in qualitative) demand for this service mid-2001) until new capacity could be (the waiting list now is over 40’000), added. Initially, ETC also sold there are no plans to allow another handsets, but has since dropped this operator to enter the market in the as it was unable to fulfill customer near future. demand for greater variety, resulting in a large number of users importing 2.2.1 The digital data network their own handsets. For the moment, (DDN) mobile services cover the area of ETC began to deploy a limited Addis Abeba and its surroundings, number digital circuits for customers and the cities of Debre Zeit, Nazareth, in late 1999—following increasing Mojo and Sodore, for a total of 120 demand for leased lines for Internet Km of road coverage. There are four access, 5 lines were deployed that gateways to the PSTN from the GSM year, growing to 10 by December 2002, after which time coverage will 2000, although 2 are used by ETC. be expanded and new services will be X.25 has not been deployed in the implemented. Doubts remain, country and so far is not envisaged. however, as to the demand for SMS, In 2001, a dedicated digital data as the technology is designed to network (DDN) service was support Latin fonts, and will not enable developed which now provides the messaging using the Amharic fonts underlying infrastructure for ETC’s used by the inhabitants of Ethiopia. Internet service and will provide other data-related services such as As with fixed-line and Internet ISDN, data transmission for banking services, ETC practices an unusual networks and distance education billing system: ETC calls each transmissions, in the near future. A customer every month to total of 9 cities have been communicate the amount of the bill, commissioned (Jimma, Bahir Dar, which then has to be paid directly at Mekelle, Desale, Sheshemene, the ETC offices. Due to backlogs in the Awessa, Nekemti, Nazareth and Dire system, it seems that customers are Dawa), with a further 6 points of

9 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

Figure 4: Fixed and mobile telecommunication tariffs

1. Fixed 1 USD = 8.56 Birr Connection fee 305 Birr (35.6 USD) Monthly rental: Business 17 Birr (2 USD) Residential 8 Birr (1 USD) Local calls 0.2 Birr for 6 minutes (0.02 USD) National long distance calls: 0.2 Birr/pulse (0.02 USD) Duration of pulse Normal* Reduced* 16-50 Km 60 sec 60 sec 201-300 Km 12 sec 18 sec 551-700 Km 6 sec 9 sec International call tariff: Africa 13 Birr/min (1.5 USD) Europe 15.98 Birr/min (1.87 USD) Asia 19.68 Birr/min (2.3 USD) America 21.35 Birr/min (2.5 USD) 2. Mobile Subscription 543 Birr (63.5 USD) Deposit for security 408 Birr (47.7 USD) Monthly rental 50 Birr (5.8 USD) Call charge: Mobile to mobile 0.75 Birr (0.09 USD) Mobile to fix From 0.33 (local, off-peak tariff) to 2.72 (long distance, peak tariff) Birr/min (repectively 0.04 and 0.32 USD) International Call Charge Call Charge for fixed telephones + 0.72 Birr/minute (0.04 USD)

Source: ETC.

Table 4: Mobile cost and revenues (selected African countries)

Country Cost of 3 minute Mobile Mobile local call (USD) subscribers revenue (USD)

Ethiopia 0.26 28’000 8’262’896 Uganda 0.36 188’568 49’705’072 Mozambique 0.46 51’065 22’486’678 Zimbabwe 0.50 309’000 45’708’048 Kenya 0.59 127’404 13’754’971 Zambia 0.68 98’853 1’532’318 South Africa 0.69 8’308’000 3’040’345’856 Ghana 0.90 130’045 2’521’334

Note: Data refer to year 2000. Data for Ethiopia are for 2001. Source: ITU World Telecommunication Indicators 2002.

10 2. Communication technology status

presence (PoP) located in the Addis The provisional licence proposed by Abeba area, including one ISDN ETA for the DDN has the following switch in Arada. The network links targets, which if not met, are liable between the PoPs are 2Mbps and local to a penalty of Birr 300 for links can be provided at up to 1Mbps. connection point that is not installed:

Table 5: Digital data network in Ethiopia

No.Regional Name of Population Roll Out Target* Administration Town Size 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06

1 Tigray Mekele 99,846 3 10 13 16 20 2 Amhara Bahir Dar 99,024 6 17 22 28 34 Amhara Dessie 100,233 2 7 10 12 14 3 Oromia Nazareth 131,677 2 7 10 12 14 Oromia Jimma 91,533 6 17 22 28 34 Oromia Debrezeit 75,573 2 7 10 12 14 Oromia Nekemte 48,676 2 5 6 8 10 Oromia Shashemene 53,642 3 10 13 16 20 4 S.N.N.P Awassa 71,244 2 7 10 12 14 5 Addis Ababa Addis Ababa 2,147,126 66 194 258 324 388 6 Dire Dawa Dire Dawa 169,797 6 19 26 32 38

Total 3,088,371 100 300 400 500 600

* Refers to number of Customer Connection Points.

DDN Tariffs Tariff for point to point Digital Leased line circuit for < 64kbps

Initial Subscription Monthly Rental (Birr) (Birr) For 27xx NTU 5,523.00 69.00 For Local lead 1,400.00 41.00 For Port -- 832.00 For Node -- 884.00

Monthly rental charge in Birr for transmission of Digital Leased line point to point circuit

A.A Awassa D/Zeit Nazareth Dessie Shashe- Mekele B/Dar Jima D/Dawa Nekempt mene AA 100 1100 200 400 1250 1000 2500 1600 1300 1750 1235 Awassa 1100 - 970 940 2200 100 3550 2400 1000 2300 1550 D/Zeit 200 970 - 200 1350 870 2600 1800 1350 1650 1370 Nazareth 400 940 200 - 1425 825 2700 1985 1450 1500 1550 Dessie 1250 2200 1350 1425 - 2200 1315 1250 2450 1465 2035 Shashemene 1000 100 870 825 2200 - 3475 2500 1025 2215 1550 Mekele 2500 3550 2600 2700 1315 3475 - 1565 3515 2500 2900 B/Dar 1600 2400 1800 1985 1250 2500 1565 - 2175 2685 1450 Jima 1300 1000 1350 1450 2450 1025 3515 2175 - 2950 800 D/Dawa 1750 2300 1650 1500 1465 2215 2500 2685 2950 - 2930 Nekempt 1235 1550 1370 1550 2035 1550 2900 1450 800 2930 -

A 19.2Kbps International link costs USD 9232 / month with a 20 per cent reduction for COMESA, while a 64Kbps lnternational link costs US 13,348 with a 30 per cent reduction for non-profit organizations.

11 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

2.3 Regulation and policy- tion and the associated Broadcasting making Agency, which has just been established. In Addis Abeba, there are Telecommunication and information just three radio channels, which are technologies have not yet been still owned by the Government, and considered a development priority in one TV channel, transmitting in Ethiopia, which is still a relatively Amharic, Oromo and Tygrigna. Foreign closed society, little affected by channels can be accessed via satellite globalization, and is still emerging dishes delivering subscription-based from almost two decades of digital TV via the South Africa-based communist military rule and the war DSTV service. Since 1994, the press with neighbouring Eritrea. The country has been liberalized and today there is only now beginning to discuss are around ten private newspapers in liberalization of the sector and the the country, however, distribution is promotion of free flow of information. largely confined to Addis Abeba. Accordingly, all telecommunications infrastructure and value-added Following the 1996 Proclamation and services are still owned by the State. Regulations, the Infrastructure Ministry also has control over the Telecommunications in Ethiopia fall regulatory authority (ETA) to which it under the authority of the Ministry of appoints the General Manager and Infrastructures, a sort of ‘supra’ approves the budget (Proclamation ministry, which, besides telecommuni- 49/1996). The Agency was created as cations, also oversees postal services, an independent body to license and energy, and transportation. The supervise telecommunication service Ministry, and specifically the operators, issue equipment standards telecommunication department, is and manage the use of radio responsible for the definition of frequencies. ETA operates as a national telecommunication policy, governmental agency, with financial excluding radio and television and political dependence. broadcasting, which fall under the Administratively, the Agency is divided authority of the Ministry of Informa- into three directorates (standards and quality control, licensing and frequency management) and has five services (legal, planning and Figure 5: Phone shop in programming, finance, public Addis Abeba relations and audit service). A total of forty people are currently working in the organization, but only a small portion of them, about seven or eight, have professional qualifications.

ETC is the incumbent public telecommunication operator and has a monopoly over all telecommunication services in the country (fixed, mobile, Internet and data communications). ETC has to carry out its functions in accordance with government policies and priorities, and its activities are supervised by a government-appointed body (Regulation 10/1996). Nevertheless, the Corporation operates as a commercial company, it has its own budget

12 2. Communication technology status

and board of directors, which decides unsatisfied owing to the inherently the company strategy and designates inefficient nature of monopoly the General Manager, whose operations and the imperative of a nomination has then to be approved quick return on investment for the by the Government. international investor.

2.4 Privatization 2.5 Licensing

Notwithstanding the monopoly of ETC, Prior to the reform of the in recent years the Government has telecommunication sector in 1996, been planning to partially privatize the telecommunication service licences company, aiming to allow the did not exist3 in the telecom sector in participation of a strategic investor, Ethiopia: the service was under the which should bring new funding and control of the Government, which new management techniques and acted as operator, regulator and skills to ETC. To permit private policy-maker. More recently, however, participation in telecommunication the necessity of opening the market services, in 1998 the Government to new investors created the need for amended the Investment Proclama- a structured licensing system to tion, providing for private companies, establish conditions and requirements national or foreign, to invest in the for the provision of telecommunication telecommunication sector in services, which implied the creation partnership with the Government of a regulatory authority (ETA) with (Proclamation 116/1998). The the power to “license and supervise possibility of selling part of ETC shares operators of telecommunication to a private partner is currently being services”. 4 studied by a private consulting company, PriceWaterHouseCoopers Licensing procedures and guidelines (PwC), which is analysing the current were established under Regulation 47/ status of ETC and the possible terms 1999, and a licence for each of the of the partnership. The results of the services currently provided by ETC has study were scheduled to be complete been drafted by the Agency on the by the end of June 2002, to be basis of general principles of submitted to ETC for a decision and a telecommunication services, i.e. high call for tenders. ETC’s revenues last quality, efficiency, reliability and year amounted to around affordability. The licensee has a duty Birr 800 million, i.e. almostto comply with the conditions USD 100 million Figure( 3).2 established in the licence regarding Investment in the telecommunication the quality of service, tariffs, and has sector has to be approved not only by to fulfil roll-out and service targets the Investment Authority, but also established by ETA in line with national directly by the competent ministry telecommunication policy as set out (Ministry of Infrastructures). by the Government.5

Although there is clear intent by the These licences, which have already Government to open ETC to private been drawn up by the Agency and investment, there is still some submitted, are still being discussed by uncertainty about the timetable for ETC, which has not signed them. this change. It is also unclear what There is an apparent lack of the entry conditions for the investor agreement between ETC and ETA on will be—sometimes a period of some licence requirements, in exclusivity lasting 3 to 5 years in the particular those regarding the roll-out provision of telecommunication of services. The refusal of ETC to sign services by the monopoly company is the licence, at least for the moment, guaranteed to the new entrant in and the inability of ETA to enforce its exchange for a higher investment. If decisions, undermines the authority the Ministry grants exclusivity to ETC of the regulatory agency and points for all telecom services, this may to the continued concentration of generate more revenues for the power with the incumbent, which is exchequer, but demand may remain still the major and most influential

13 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

actor in the telecom field, both This also means that independent economically and politically. VSAT connections and satellite phones are not allowed, and call-back is The establishment of the agency and illegal—punishable by a fine and 2 to of a set of licences and conditions is 5 years’ imprisonment. nevertheless important in view of the entry of a new investor in the With very few exceptions, VSAT company. However, the question terminals are used by ETC only, to remains as to the control ETA will be connect less served and rural areas. able to exert over the operator in the In the last few years, three entities future, on which the effective and obtained a special authorization to rapid development of have their independent VSAT link telecommunication infrastructures supplied by ETC: the Civil Servants and services in the country will College, which is running a distance depend. learning course, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), for 2.6 Sector liberalization its Internet connection, and the World Bank, in the framework of As indicated above, franchise over development activities in Ethiopia. telecommunications services by ETC is almost total, except for the sale of Even in the above-mentioned cases customer premises equipment, which where exceptional authorization has even for private use, is still subject to been granted, the beneficiaries have ETA authorization. The use of any to undergo several limitations: UNECA telecommunication technology that may use VSAT, but this is officially would enable bypassing the local owned by the Government. The use network is strictly forbidden. At the of the satellite link is restricted to moment no licences are granted to Internet and data transfers. Voice private operators to sell or resell communications must always pass telecommunication services, whether through the terrestrial network, and basic or enhanced. the connection may be used from

Table 6: Ethiopian telecommunication policy

Telecommunication services Legal status

Provision of fixed or mobile ETC has sole franchise. Forbidden for private companies unless in telephone services, Internet partnership with the Government (currently being investigated). and data Reselling of voice Not allowed, but currently tolerated. There are many unadvertised phone telecommunication services shops in the country. Reselling of Internet services Not allowed for anyone except ETC to act as ISP. Cybercafés Not officially allowed, but there are several business-centre type Internet cafés in Addis Abeba, which are currently tolerated. Some have been closed for openly selling VoIP services. There is not a clear policy on the issue. VSAT connections Not possible for individuals or companies to have their independent VSAT connection. Voice over Internet (VoIP) Not allowed. VoIP services are illegally provided by some cybercafés in Addis Abeba. Call back Illegal, punishable with a fine and imprisonment. Telecommunication equipment Initially, ETC also had a monopoly on telephone handsets. Today, the authorization of ETA is required to use or sell imported equipment.

Source: Council of Ministers Regulation No. 10/1996; Proclamation No. 49/1996; Proclamation No.116/1998; Council of Ministers Regulation No. 47/1999. Online at http://www.telecom.net.et/~eta.

14 2. Communication technology status

UNECA headquarters only, not from phone shops in the streets and the employees’ homes. To have the quite visible Internet cafés seem to privilege of an independent be tolerated by the authorities, connection, UNECA is paying the although the operation of cybercafés Government a ‘compensation’ or is officially discouraged by ETC, which ‘bypass’ fee. ETC is also concerned is concerned about the possible use that UNECA allows journalists, of voice over IP (VoIP) and the students or other visitors to connect consequent decrease of international to the Internet from its facilities. The traffic revenues. same is true for the College of Civil Servants: the service is available only Given the widespread practice of inside the College, and is not made reselling communications services, available for students externally, even ETA is currently planning to allow though many resources of the College private entities to resell telephone could be accessed directly by those services subject to the granting of a who could not afford an Internet licence. ETA considers that in this way account. From home, students it could have control over resale, which currently have to obtain a normal is currently not supervised by the Internet subscription with ETC. public authority. It is interesting to note that this process does not have The environment for the reselling of the purpose of liberalizing the service services is more complex, the many and fostering competition but aims to

Box 1: Phone shops: illegal and expensive

Despite concerns in rural and remote that the reselling of areas, to cover An ETC public phone area phone services 84 per cent of the could be detrimental population. The to customers by objective of this being too expensive development or without guaran- project is to have at tee of quality or least one public pricing, telephone phone for each shops are widely farmer association, present in Ethiopia. which is the The surprise is that smallest cell of the the large number of Ethiopian society.6 shops in the market However these (often very close to targets have not yet one another) does been agreed upon not seem to stimulate competition: all of them sell by the ETC, which did not sign the licence, therefore the service at the same price, at Birr 0.75 minute they will not become effective until the entry into (0.09 US cents) (for local calls), about three times force of the licence. more expensive than the service provided by ETC’s public payphones. The same dynamics are behind the spread of cybercafés and public Internet access points: the cost Explanations include the fact that telephone lines of computer equipment (there are only an estimated are difficult to obtain, that they are often too 60’000 PCs in the country) and Internet connection expensive for the average Ethiopian, and that the are too high for individuals, therefore many people number of public phones is quite low: there are use public points of access. ETC is planning to establish only about 1’500 public phones in the country and Internet centres around Ethiopia (one pilot Internet prepaid cards have not been around long, so centre has been created in ETC headquarters in Addis communications had to be paid for with coins. ETC’s Abeba, with two computers connected to the Internet provisional licence roll-out targets for the financial and a fax machine), however there is evidence that year 2001/2002, establishes that the number of this task is too burdensome for the company, which public phones should grow to 6’500 in the next five in the last two years has not been able to offer an years, and that 22’000 call offices are to be set up adequate service to the population.

Source: ITU case study research.

15 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

give ETA more control over the authorization may have equipment market. Under the licence agreement, confiscated by the Agency, and in any the Agency would fix price caps and case ETC can refuse to connect establish specific conditions for the unauthorized apparatus. provision of the service to protect the customer (clear indication of tariffs, 2.7 International traffic and indicators of time, etc). This strategy revenues reflects a certain lack of confidence in, or familiarity with, the market International traffic has shown steady mechanism in providing the consumer continuous growth in the past ten with desired service levels. years. The main destinations for international calls are Europe, followed Control over customer equipment by United States and Asia. ETC had a covers any kind of telecommunication total international outgoing minutes equipment, from the most complex in 2001 of 13’580’200 and incoming router to the simplest telephone minutes of 43’677’930. These handset. Following the 1996 generated a total international Proclamation, ETA also has to approve revenue of Birr 312’968’000 TVRO (television receive-only) and (Figure 6). radiocommunication equipment, and can specify any other equipment that As for many other developing requires its approval. Approval is subject countries, international traffic (and to compliance with certain standards, especially incoming traffic) represents which have been specifically established one of the major sources of revenue by the ETA, and are listed in a two- for ETC, accounting for up to 70 per volume compilation. cent of total revenues. However today, following the reduction of international There are no blanket licences or settlement rates, and the spread of general approval for telecom VoIP, the international portion of equipment: in the case of importation revenues constitutes less then the of equipment, the importer (a private 40 per cent of the total, while a individual importing an handset for growing place is being taken by mobile private use, or a company importing and Internet services. equipment) must ask ETA for approval and may then sell or connect the For the present, as ETC is the only equipment to the telecommunication operator, rebalancing of tariffs and system. Any person found in interconnection are not an issue, and possession of equipment without have not been dealt with by ETA.

16 2. Communication technology status

Figure 6: The Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation's sources of revenue

ETC revenues by source (thousand Birr) Mobile, 1,000,000 Data and Local and 800,000 Internet 20% long 600,000 distance 400,000 domestic calls 200,000 44% 0 Int'l calls 2000 2001 2002 36% Data and 27,900 42,200 61,200 Internet Mobile 68,000 104,600 108,000 International 293,400 313,000 302,000 ETC revenues 2000/2001 (fiscal year ending Domestic 269,500 318,200 362,000 8 July): 802 million Birr (US$ 93.8 million)

Note: Figures are for fiscal year ending 8 July. Figures for 2002 are projections. One million Birr = USD 116'822. Source: ETC.

1 Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation. 2 Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation. 3 However for the use of radio frequencies a licence had to be granted by the Licensing and Standard Division of the former ETC. The same division also approved fax machines imported by users. 4 Proclamation No. 49/1996 to provide for the regulation of telecommunications. Online at www.telecom.net.et/~eta. 5 For the roll-out target see Annex 1 of the License conditions for the provision of public switched telecommunication service, ETA, 2002. 6 See section 1 “Country background”.

17 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

3. Internet strategy and policy

3.1 Status of the Internet to dial-up access and local website hosting and development. The use of the Internet in Ethiopia began in 1993 when the UN Economic The ETC took over the administration Commission for Africa (whose of the .et Top Level Domain (TLD) from headquarters are in Addis Abeba) the technical administrator at UNECA established a store-and-forward e- when the EthioNet service was mail service called PADISNet (Pan launched, and although it has African Documentation and developed a tariff for hosting Information Service Network) which subdomains of .et, it has yet to allow connected daily via direct dial calls to registration of new subdomains. GreenNet’s Internet gateway in London. Because no other services Training for users is provided via the were available, the facility was heavily ETC’s Ethiopian Telecommunications used by international organizations Training Institute (ETTI) and free and NGOs, but also by some telephonic technical support is given academics, individuals and private for setup and e-mail issues, while companies. At its peak the service had directing other support queries to its about 1’200 users. helpdesk e-mail address.

In the following year, the US-based Within a month of its launch EthioNet NGO, HealthNet, established a node had over 600 users and this grew to at the Medical Faculty of the University 1’750 by February 1998 (including of Addis Abeba, which provided e-mail 200 in other towns), 2’500 in December access to medical researchers via the 1999 (when bandwidth was upgraded HealthSat/VITA Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to 1Mbps, with an additional 1Mbps satellite. added in June 2000) and about 3’500 by March 2001, at which point the In 1996, a broadly constituted cross- facility was deemed to have reached sectoral national Internet working maximum capacity. In line with ETC’s group supported by the Ethiopian generally high level of service Science and Technology Commission standards, and because performance (ESTC), called Bringing Internet to levels would have suffered by adding Ethiopia (BITE), drew up a detailed more users, no more subscribers were national Internet proposal. This, accepted in anticipation of an upgrade together with the PADIS/HealthNet to the service which was being planned services, helped build significant with assistance from UNDP’s Internet demand for full Internet access Initiative for Africa (IIA) programme. which was ultimately provided by Although the project took some time ETC in January 1997. Following a to begin, UNDP provided funding of survey of the potential market, USD 900’000, with the Ethiopian Global One was contracted to Government contributing a further commission the service (called USD 700’000 to establish 8 more PoPs EthioNet), carry out training and in the country: 4 large PoPs (64 dial- provide the upstream International up modems) in Mekele, Bahir Dar, bandwidth (256Kbps initially) via Awassa and Jimma, and 4 smaller ETC’s existing satellite earth station ones (32 modems) in Dessie, Gondar, and circuits to the United States Lekemte and Dire Dawa. These PoPs (backhauled to central Addis Abeba were connected to the Addis Abeba via microwave). Because ETC did not Internet gateway via domestic have a leased line data service at the satellite and became operational in time, Internet services were limited June 2001.

18 3. Internet strategy and policy

Because ETC provides a local-call tariff accumulated by the time the new from anywhere in the country to dial service was operational. This took its Internet service, these points of place in July 2001 and since then the presence (PoPs) are largely a cost- number of accounts has grown to just saving exercise to limit subsidization over 6’000. The chart below (Figure 7) of long-distance calls. Also, when shows the number of accounts added leased line Internet access is required and cancelled during the period July outside Addis Abeba, the PoPs will be 2001 to February 2002. As can be able to provide them much more seen, the growth in number of efficiently from the 8 major cities. subscribers has tailed off considerably International link congestion is now in last few months, indicating that the quite severe during the day (see backlog was cleared by about October below), with the incoming bandwidth 2001 and the potential dial-up user- fully saturated from about 07:00 to base is beginning to reach its peak. 17:00 hours during which time about EthioNet estimates that there are 20 per cent of the incoming packets 10 users per dial-up account, giving are dropped. As a result, ETC is in the the total number of users at about process of upgrading the link with an 60’000. Most other ISPs estimate additional 2Mbps outgoing and 8Mbps between 3 and 7 users per dial-up incoming bandwidth to be provided by account, so this estimate is probably New Skies Satellite (NSS) for optimistic. USD 25’000 per month using existing transponder leases. The existing Despite the availability of the 2Mbps (symmetric) international nationwide local call tariff for dial-up bandwidth is provided by France Internet users, the distribution of Telecom (FCR), for which it pays about Internet users is still strongly skewed USD 24’000 per month. to the capital, with subscribers outside of Addis Abeba accounting for only Due to delays in commissioning the about 6 per cent of the total user base. upgrade to the service, a considerable This is partly attributable to the low waiting list of potential subscribers level of computerization outside the

Figure 7: Internet accounts added or canceled (by year)

Source: Ethio Internet.

19 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

capital, but is probably more related additional leased lines, however these to the limited availability of telecom will only be deployed once the tariff infrastructure. ETC does give line and procedures for allocating leased installation priority to signed up data lines are finalized by DDN. EthioNet subscribers who also require a telephone line, but this is still subject EthioNet also has a Web development to availability of infrastructure. and hosting unit called EthioPages. It Unfortunately, the wireless local oop currently hosts websites for a total of (WLL) system that has been deployed 69 organizations, including 18 NGOs, in some areas does not adequately 23 government organizations and support data communications. 27 private companies (see Table 7).

These are not problems simply 3.2 Pricing structure for confined to areas outside the capital— Internet services even in Addis Abeba lack of phone lines and access to computers is a The tariff for the EthioNet’s dial-up severe problem for many potential service is based on five subscriber customers, as is demonstrated by the categories as shown in Table 8 (C1-5). usage statistics on the international The fees established at the launch of link. Traffic falls off dramatically the service were based on the between 1700 hours and 0800 hours, expectation of fewer customers and showing that there is limited were subsequently revised downwards residential consumer use, with most by 25-50 per cent in November 1997 of the activity taking place during and have since remained as Table 8. office hours using business phone lines and computers. Website development is also provided by ETC and has a complex pricing As of December 2001, 66 per cent of strategy: the user-base comprised private accounts, 5 per cent was government, • Uploading & verifying pages - 20 per cent international 25 Birr per screen page. organizations, embassies and • Web page Development (Text businesses, and 9 per cent academic, file) - 100 Birr per screen page. health and agriculture. In the two • Scanning artwork - 50 Birr / years between December 1999 and image. December 2001, the total number of • Scanning artwork with animation dial-up minutes per month more than - 300 Birr per image. doubled, from 3’443’549 to 7’768’617, • Multimedia file creation (wav, which translates to a small decrease PDF, jpg etc) - Birr 150 per in usage during that period, from 23 to image/file. 22 hours per month per user. During • Real Audio media production - the same period the number of 40 Birr/ file hour accessible dial-up lines grew from • Real Video production at 50 Birr/ 224 to 1’088, of which 384 are now file hour. located outside Addis Abeba. Monthly • Interactive web page customized revenues during this period increased format using HTML Coded Forms 190 per cent, from 2.3M Birr/month (CGI, Java etc) - 200 Birr per to 4.4M Birr/month. Interestingly, page and 5 Birr per custom field. almost all of this increase took place • Logo design - 80 Birr/image. between March and December 2001, • Database development - 80 Birr/ during which time the user-base grew hour. by 160 per cent. • Banner advertising - 400 Birr/ month. EthioNet has provided ten 64Kbps • Hard disk rental - 17 Birr/MB/ leased lines so far, with most having month (html), and 42 Birr/MB/ been made available to government Month for multimedia files. organizations and some international • Web page formatting using organizations such as UNECA. There Tables - Birr 50 per file and 2 Birr is a waiting list of about 55 for per table element.

20 3. Internet strategy and policy

Table 7: Websites hosted by ETC

NGO Government Business

AAU Technology Fac. AAMP Abeba Gidey PLC

Abebech Gobena BDU Afro Ostritch PLC

Alemaya University DPPC Altastar PLC

APAP Ethiopian Map Authority Ambass Enterprises

CFAO-EOC Ethiopian News Agency Ergib Trading plc

Debrebirhan Public Lib. Experience Eth. Travel CPU

GC MS EPA EET

GTZ-IFMP EIC ELICO

IB CR ESTC Ethiopia Today

Italian Cult. Inst ETA Habesha Trading

Jimma University Ethiopian Trade Point Jiva Comp. Academy

Unresco FEMSEDA Lalibela Hotels

UNCDF MTSE Nature Lovers Tour Operator

UNDP-EUE National Bank NTC

Wolisso City Council NCIC Pact Ethiopia

UNFPA/CST AA TCDE Sheba Tannery

The British Council US Embassy St. Gabriel Hospital

Forum for Street Children Walta Info. Center Sur Construction S.C

Royal Netherlands Embassy TCDE

Ministry of Information and Culture of Thomas Chako Ethiopia

Ethiopian Foot Ball Federation United Tebarek

Ethiopian Customs Authority WARYT

Enweyay Civic and Social Education Yenegew Sew Center

Axum International Tour and Travel

Ross Training Resource Center

Dire Dewa Food Complex

Infotec PLC

Source: CIA World Factbook 2001, http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/.

21 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

Table 8: Internet service costs

Monthly Additional Setup Service subscription hours Individual/Private Company 8 free hrs a month 56 USD 19 USD 4 USD (C1) 1MB free storage Individual/Private Company 15 free hrs/month 75 USD 34 USD 4 USD (C2) 1MB free storage International NGO's, 40 free hrs/month. Embassies and Business 113 USD 75 USD 4 USD 2MB free storage Sectors (C4) Public Education, Health and 40 free hrs/month 38 USD 25 USD 2 USD Agricultural Sectors: (C5) 2MB free storage Other non-profit 40 free hrs/month 56 USD 38 USD 2 USD organizations (C3): 2MB free storage. Additional hard disk space 2 USD month per MB Additional e-mail boxes 5 USD month (C3, C4 and C5 accounts qualify for 2 free e-mail addresses) Installation or configuration of the dial-up account by 20 USD bringing the machine to EthioNet's premises costs

Source: Ethio Internet.

• Image map layout - 150 Birr. While US Dollar rates are quoted for most tariffs, these are payable in Birr EthioNet customers automatically have at current rates of exchange for web space under their username - Ethiopian nationals and businesses www.telecom.net.et/~userid. EthioNet owned by Ethiopians. The tariffs are has also recently provided for domain also payable in Birr for foreign registration under the .com.et domain. nationals and organizations, but the Currently it is possible to register National Bank of Ethiopia keeps www.telecom.net.et/company_name account of these payments for ETC’s for Birr 17 per month. Registration of hard currency allocation. An additional www.company_name.com.et costs Birr 15 per cent sales tax is added to the 417 for setup and Birr 500 per year. total payment. Bills are currently issued and paid in Addis Abeba. Leased line fees have been provisionally Because it is not yet possible to set at USD 500 for 500 connection, conduct wire transfers between bank USD 200 for setup and USD 1’000 per branches, the outlying areas have month for 64Kbps CIR on the difficulties in getting the payment to international link. Uncommitted Addis on time, resulting in extra bandwidth or reduced charges for lower collection overheads. Plans are being bandwidth on the International link are made to have bills issued at the local not currently envisaged. IP address PoPs where administration and space will be billed at Birr 18 per year support technicians will be stationed. per IP number and leased line customers qualify for up to 10 free e- All of the cybercafés in Addis Abeba mail addresses on the telecom.net.et surveyed charged the same rate for mail server. Internet access - Birr 0.75 per minute

22 3. Internet strategy and policy

and Birr 1 per black&white page recently been launched. These printed and Birr 8 for colour. Other revenues are forecast to grow by commonly used charges are Birr 0.35/ 45 per cent in 2002, to 61’200’000. page for photocopies (0.25/page for While still only representing 0.5 per more than 1’000 copies), Birr 7 per cent of ETC’s total revenues in 2001, A4 scan or Birr 5 per scan for more data and Internet revenue is the than 5. fastest growing component.

Calls to the Internet from anywhere 3.3 Regulatory status of in the country are charged at standard Internet local call tariffs - Birr 0.28 per 6 minutes, or approximately 0.33 US In January 2002, a five-year licence cents per hour, among the lowest local was proposed by the regulatory call tariffs on the continent. agency, ETA, for ETC to operate an Internet service, for a licence fee of This gives an average total monthly Birr 100’000, however, as with the costs for a private dial-up subscriber other telecommunication licences, ETC using 22 hours a month (excluding has not yet signed. Some initial telephone line rental which is Birr 8 discussions have also taken place to per month for residential lines and issue private ISP licences, for which 17 Birr per month for business lines) the same fee is envisaged, however at USD 69.3, which, despite the low currently there has still been no local-call tariff, is amongst the highest decision as to when these licences will in Africa due to the high subscription be issued. charge. Some of the interesting features of the Import duties for PCs and IT related licence include: equipment are divided into two categories: • The Licensee shall obtain approval in writing from the a) If PCs are imported for Agency to make substantive telecommunications-related and change to the Network or office activities, the import duties Network Architecture from the will be 5 per cent; construction and physical description of the Network contained in the approved b) If PCs are imported for resale by Licensee’s proposal. any business, then the import duty will be 40 per cent. • The Licensee shall take measures on its own and as and when Plans are currently being made by ETC directed by the Agency at its own to revise dial-up rates downwards, to cost to bar carriage of telephone introduce per-minute charging and fax traffic over Internet by (instead of the flat rate regardless of the subscribers. number of hours used up to the maximum) and to reduce the number • The Licensee shall not transmit of tariff categories to two (merging C3 any message or communication, and C5). In addition it is anticipated which infringes literary and that a prepaid option will be made artistic ownership in any form or available, most likely using the Rodopi inconsistent with the laws of the platform (www.rodopi.com). This will Federal Democratic Republic of also likely help address bill collection Ethiopia. problems, which have resulted in a significant level of non-payments. • Logins where the identity of logged-in user is not known In 2001, ETC derived a total revenue should not be permitted. of Birr 42’200’000 for data and Internet services, the bulk of which most likely comes from the Internet Detailed rollout targets for the licence service as the data service has only holder have also been defined which

23 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

require ETC to provide an additional not syphoned off by foreign, cream- 36’000 subscribers in areas outside skimming competitors focusing on the Addis Abeba by 2005/2006. If the more lucrative urban areas. licensee fails to achieve the rollout target for the Internet, it must pay Currently, the only official government ETA a penalty of Birr 300 for each activity to promote public access to missed subscription in each year. the Internet is the ETC cybercafés Similarly, there are penalties for not located in downtown Addis Abeba. meeting service level requirements. More recently, the British Council has obtained permission to operate a Aside from a privacy policy forbidding cybercafé, as part of its library, on its disclosure of user details, EthioNet has premises in the city. The British also had an Acceptable Use Policy Council has also assisted in the (AUP) from its inception, which establishment of a multi-purpose includes the stipulation that community telecentre in Wolisso, a anonymous transmissions are town 116 km from Addis Abeba, prohibited and that accounts are non- through a joint project with the ESTC transferable or cannot be shared with and with funding from the British third parties outside the same Embassy. The telecentre provides organization. This latter condition was communities in Wolisso with Internet considerably abused during the period browsing and e-mail services including in which no new accounts were being other communication facilities such as accepted, because the Global One fax and telephone. As part of the same technical implementation did not bar project, there is a plan to set up simultaneous use. Thus the same another two telecentres at Debre account was resold many times by Berhan and in Tigray. More recently, some users. the Agence de la Francophonie (OIF) has begun plans to open a cybercafés 3.4 Universal access with 12 PCs in Addis Abeba which will offer access to French online materials A study by the ETA of universal service for free. needs and goals is currently under way. Much of the ETC’s current Private cybercafés have so far been strategy, as directed by government, discouraged because of their is informed by traditional universal contravention of the current service objectives - i.e. to roll out telecommunication policy. This is voice services to every district exacerbated by ETC’s concern that (Warada) and ultimately to the these are providing VoIP services and smallest administrative unit, the a number have been shut down. Kebele (farmers’ association). Basic Nevertheless, there are dozens of voice services are seen as the primary cybercafés in Addis Abeba unofficially concern to be addressed, rather than providing Internet browsing and e-mail to use scarce resources for more services, including in major hotels and limited demand for advanced services. organizations such as the Hilton, and This is also seen as a reason for the Chamber of Commerce. Many of ensuring that ETC retains a monopoly them offer a wide range of business in all services so that the funds for services such as photocopying, printing, rolling out services in rural areas are fax delivery, stationary and IT products.

24 3. Internet strategy and policy

Figure 8: Cybercafés in Addis Abeba

Source: CIA World Factbook 2001, http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/.

25 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

4. Information and communication technologies and the nation

Ethiopia has yet to promulgate any task of upgrading the skills of its substantive high-level national ICT 120’000 primary school teachers and policies, although a National 14’000 secondary teachers and is thus Information Policy is now being concentrating on various teacher developed. In June 2001, the British training and capacity building Council hosted a conference on ICTs initiatives. In early 2002, the and development entitled “Ethiopia in Department of Education awarded a the Knowledge Age”, which brought Birr 2.1 million tender to four local together 350 key policy-makers in computer suppliers for the provision government, development agencies, of 170 workstation computers, academics, NGOs and the private 4 servers, 9 laptops and related sector. The event was supported by equipment under its Basic Education the Commonwealth Telecommuni- System Overhaul (BESO) project. The cation Organization’s Building Digital equipment, which is funded by USAID Opportunities programme and a to support capacity building in teacher variety of local institutions. The training and reforms of the primary participants undertook a thorough education system, will be installed at review of the issues and a series of the Teachers Training Institute (TTI) important recommendations and the Teachers Training College emanated from the conference, (TTC). The Department is also including the need for a national ICT planning to introduce ICT training in task force and this particular joint secondary schools. CTO/ITU case study. Further details of the recommendations can be found The UNDP is planning a project to link on the conference website.1 400 of the high schools to the Internet in a USD 6 million proposal. Discussion 4.1 Education about the use of VSAT for the project have not borne fruit yet and it is With low levels of literacy and the expected that the project will start limited number of school leavers with the 30 per cent of the schools (1999 rates of primary school that have phone lines. The intention enrollment are half the Sub-Saharan was to provide community access average), improving the educational facilities to offset the operating costs system is a high priority for for the schools, but this is currently Government. In particular, the constrained by the Telecommuni- standard of English language cations Act restrictions on resale of instruction is low - there are 25 official services. UNDP is also currently languages of instruction (with three providing ICT capacity building for the different scripts), which makes the use Ministry of Education, to establish a of ICTs problematic for many, as these LAN and WAN at the ministry scripts are not supported by standard headquarters and to carry out software. training.

The basic education system has so far The tertiary education system been virtually untouched by the comprises 6 national universities and Internet. Of the 12’000 primary 3 polytechnics with a total of schools, only 9 had Internet access approximately 86’000 students, of at the end of 2001. Perhaps more which there were 113 IT graduates in surprisingly, only 10 of the 2001. Addis Abeba University (AAU) 424 secondary schools had access. is the largest tertiary institution and The Department of Education is in the is also host to one of the World Bank’s process of undertaking the massive African Virtual University (AVU)2

26 4. Information and communication technologies and the nation

facilities which has proved popular Internet link because the other among students who have shown tertiary academic facilities are willingness to pay up to USD 200 per independent entities and this would course for access to the one-way imply resale of EthioNet’s service by video-conferencing service, which has AAU. EthioNet has been unwilling to an audio return-path for speaking to hand over the .edu.et domain to the the lecturers. A variety of University of Addis Abeba as it believes programming, computer literacy and the domain should not be controlled computer hardware maintenance by an interested party, but should be courses are taught via the facility. administered by an independent Connectivity is provided by VSAT and agency. is one of the only telecom links operating independently of the ETC. ESTC also has a number of other ICT- Currently, AVU Ethiopia is hoping to related programmes: win a bid for course content development for all of the AVU units • To deliver education to workers in Africa. The AAU provides a degree via extension programmes and and diploma programme in computer evening study, once ESTC’s science and has changed its former existing computer lab is department of Library Science to an expanded. Information Systems degree program. There are also a variety of private IT • To upgrade the skills of teachers training colleges, of which Micro Link, in service during summer CPU colleges, Ethilink and HelcoE are holidays. There is currently a among the most well known. print-based programme, but ESTC would like to use the TV The Ethiopian Science and Technology network and the Internet to Commission (ESTC), which is hosted deliver distance education. by AAU, provides support for ICTs and Negotiations have taken place networking in the academic and with the Educational Media research sectors via its National Agency to produce interactive Computer and Information Centre. distance education materials, but While the ESTC has sensitized most the fees quoted for production of of the academic and research USD 1.2 million were deemed institutions (including those outside excessive, so ESTC is planning to the capital) to be aware of the set up its own multimedia lab at potential of electronic the University. communications, the lack of available funds has been major limitation on • To collaborate with ETC’s distance usage when combined with the high education labs based around the cost of access to ETC’s Internet country. service. To address this, ESTC has had a plan since mid-1996 to establish a The School for Information Studies in full Internet hub—called AAUNet—on Africa is also based at the University the Addis Abeba University campus of Addis Abeba. It has established a which would form the nucleus of a research programme on African phased expansion toward a national Information Society issues, and is also academic and research network the national centre for the support of linking the 6 universities and 18 the UNESCO developed full-text national research centres. database system, CDS/ISIS.3

A British NGO, Ethiopia Aid, has The Institute of Ethiopian Studies is already installed a USD 1.2 million being assisted by the Faculty of Afro- fibre optic backbone linking the 5 AAU American Studies (FAS) at Harvard campuses (the Black Lion Hospital, the University to establish the Ethiopian Medical Faculty and the Veterinary Art and Architecture Database Project. school 40 kms away will be linked in The Project plans to build a the second phase). However, EthioNet comprehensive photographic archive has not been keen to supply the and database of Ethiopian art and

27 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

architecture. Developed in supporting the project with the consultation with the Ethiopian development of a design for the Church, the Ministry of Culture, and network, upgrading of telecom links other relevant authorities FAS is where necessary and making 50 free seeking to raise USD 1.3 million to hours per month of dial-up Internet cover the initial three-year phase. access available to the hospitals involved in the project. The project 4.2 Health was planned to begin in December 2000, however due to executive Health care is very underdeveloped in personnel changes in the health Ethiopia, which has one of the lowest ministry, which have delayed final health status indicators in the world. approval for the project, the initiative According to a report by the has not yet started. telemedicine working group, infant mortality is 105/1000, maternal 4.3 E-commerce and trade mortality rates are between 560 and 850/100’000 and life expectancy is E-commerce and the use of the estimated to be between 47 and 54 Internet in trade is at a very early years. Health services are only stage of development in Ethiopia. accessible to about 50 per cent of the E-commerce related laws and population (due to bad or nonexistent regulations such as privacy protection roads it can take up to two weeks for and digital signature have yet to be someone to travel to the capital from adopted, however, the draft a remote area) and most of the Information Policy currently under medical experts are concentrated in consideration is expected to outline the major cities.4 steps in this direction. There are no credit cards available in the country, The establishment of the HealthNet or branches of any international node in the early 1990s provided an commercial banks, which even makes initial impetus to the use of the it impossible for foreign visitors to Internet in the health sector, however obtain a credit card cash advance.5 because of the limited bandwidth and Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) are restriction of service to e-mail, this did also currently not widely in use, not have widespread impact. There although the major state owned bank are a total of 110 hospitals in Ethiopia, - the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia is of which only 38 had a dial-up Internet about to run an 8 ATM pilot using connection by end 2001 and no Amharic customization. The Bank hospitals were using the Web for initially planned to introduce a credit administrative purposes. Of the card, then decided instead to develop 311 pharmacies in the country, 8 had a smart card service. Initial bids for Internet access and none of the the supply of the smart card were 4’818 health service clinics appear to rejected due to lack of EMV be online. compliance and a re-tender is expected next year. A National Telemedicine Co-ordinating Committee has been set up as part of The Commercial Bank, as well as the the ITU’s telemedicine project in privately-owned Dashen Bank, have Ethiopia to support the development also begun networking their branches of a national telemedicine network, in Addis Abeba and plan to extend this which aims to initially connect to the region with the new DDN 10 outlying hospitals and the AAU network in the coming months. Faculty of Medicine. Telemedicine Currently, the banks must use equipment to facilitate remote international direct dial to participate diagnostics is to be installed at each in SWIFT, CitiBank and Western Union hospital. ITU is planning to provide financial transfers, and this is telemedicine software and digital becoming a significant problem, as cameras to each hospital, along with well as being costly. In other countries a central telemedicine workstation to the airlines nework - SITA - is used, the Faculty of Medicine. ETC has been and although a SITA PoP exists in

28 4. Information and communication technologies and the nation

Addis Abeba for use by the airlines, controversy over the award of the other agencies are not allowed to tender. access it. The Ethiopian Civil Service College has The Ethiopian Trade Point was recently been supported by the World established in October 1997 with Bank’s Global Development Learning assistance from UNCTAD to collect and Network (GDLN) to establish a disseminate trade information using sophisticated VSAT-based peer-to- ICTs to facilitate foreign trade peer videoconferencing and distance procedures and to implement an learning centre at its premises on the electronic trading system, but because outskirts of Addis Abeba. The Civil of the limitations described above, this Service College was set up in 1995 to has made little progress.6 Similarly, provide training for civil servants, these and other factors such as the however the GDLN facility (which is war with Eritrea have contributed to part of a network of 29 centres around the very limited amount of tourism in the world, including 6 others in Africa) Ethiopia (particularly in view of the is open to anyone. The two-way country’s potential to attract tourists) videoconferencing facility is housed in and although there are some websites a classroom capable of taking up to promoting tourism, these are small 40 students and a variety of courses standalone sites created by private have been held for about operators of tours and accommo- 1’200 students so far, for which they dation.7 pay about 25 per cent of their salary. The centre also houses 8 PCs on a Despite the barriers to e-commerce, network with a direct VSAT link to the one or two companies have adopted Internet. The College operates without some innovative techniques to exploit strongly promoting its capacity to the the potential of the Internet for e- public or enhancing its services (for commerce.8 The most well known of example by allowing students to these is EthioLink’s ‘reverse e- connect directly from home instead of commerce’ service (EthioGift), which only from the university), because the allows the Ethiopian Diaspora (many College managers are somewhat of which do have credit cards) to unsure of their status with regard to purchase items, including goats, for ETC’s monopoly on services. delivery to their friends and relatives living in Ethiopia.9 4.5 NGOs and international organizations 4.4 Government The British Council and the Christian In 2001 there were estimated to be Relief and Development Association about 349’650 civil servants in the (CRDA) have recently established Ethiopian Government, of which only DEVINET to support the development 20 per cent have post-high school of civil society through collating and education. About 50’000 (14 per cent) publishing information on a website had PCs and an estimated 2’200 had generated by NGOs and other e-mail (based on 735 government development organizations in EthioNet accounts each having Ethiopia. DEVINET also aims to 3 users). support NGOs in developing their own websites and to improve their use of Through the European Union Internet resources.10 Delegation, the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) has made The UN Economic Commission for considerable funds available to the Africa (UNECA) in Addis Abeba is the Ethiopian Federal Parliament and the location of the headquarters of this Federation Council for a project called organization, which has long Development and Upgrading of the supported electronic networking in the Parliamentary Information System region through its Pan African (DUPIS). The Birr 8.24 million contract Documentation and Information has yet to be finalized following Service (PADIS) which has now been

29 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

subsumed under the new CABECA project. Last year, CISCO, Department of Information Services the Internet equipment and Documentation (DISD). DISD is manufacturer, has worked with UNECA now spearheading the African to establish a Network Training Information Society Initiative Academy which has already seen its (AISI).11 In the mid-1990s, PADIS first set of graduates. UNECA has a managed a variety of development leased line to ETC as well as its own databases, a store and forward 1Mbps VSAT Internet connection electronic mail host as part of the directly linking it with New York.12

1 See: http://www.ethiopiaknowledge.org/. 2 See: http://www.avu.org/. 3 Contact: [email protected]. 4 Telemedicine in Ethiopia. ITU Project document prepared by Dr Leonid Androuchko. 5 Dashen Bank claims to provide this service to visitors at its Sheraton branch, but the service appears to only be available to Sheraton residents for settling bills and Dashen must send the credit card slips out of the country to deposit them, as does the other international hotel - the Hilton. 6 Melaku Legesse [email protected]. 7 A general tourism website was developed by a UNECA staffer at http://www.tourethio.com. 8 A coffee promotion website is at www.cofeemocha.com. 9 See: http://www.ethiolink.com/EthioGift - this example is often quoted by the president of the president of the World Bank in his presentations to underline innovative techniques for using the Internet. 10 See: www.devinet.org, or [email protected]. 11 See: http://www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi. 12 See: http://www.uneca.org.

30 5. Conclusions and recommendations

5. Conclusions and recommendations

5.1 State of the Internet in • Connectivity infrastructure: a Ethiopia measure based on international The Mosaic Group has developed a and intranational backbone framework for characterizing the state bandwidth, exchange points, and of the Internet in a nation. They last mile access methods. consider six dimensions, each of which has five ordinal values, ranging from • Organizational infrastructure: a zero (non-existent) to 4 (highly measure based on the state of developed). the ISP industry and market conditions. The dimensions are as follow: • Sophistication of use: a measure • Pervasiveness: a measure based characterizing usage from on users per capita and the conventional to highly degree to which non-technicians sophisticated and driving are using the Internet. innovation.

• Geographic dispersion: a Ethiopian values for these parameters measure of the concentration of are shown below (for the methodology the Internet within a nation, from see Annex 1). none or a single city to nationwide availability. 5.1.1 Pervasiveness Pervasiveness in Ethiopia is rated at • Sectoral absorption: a measure 1, experimental. Even assuming an of the degree of utilization of the optimistic estimate of 60’000 Internet Internet in the education, users out of a population of almost commercial, health care and 55 million, the user rate is of public sectors. only 0.092 per cent. The user

Figure 9: State of the Internet in Ethiopia

Dimension Value

Pervasiveness 4 Pervasiveness 1 3 Geographic Dispersion 1.5 Sophistication of use 2 Geographic dispersion 1 Sectoral Absorption 0.5 0 Connectivity Infrastructure 1

Organizational Organizational Infrastructure 1 Sectoral absorption infrastructure Sophistication of Use 1

Connectivity infrastructure TOTAL 6

Source: ITU adapted from Mosaic Group methodology. Online at http://som.csudh.edu/fac/lpress/gdiff/ quest.htm.

31 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

community does not only include 5.1.5 Organizational network technicians, but it is also infrastructure extended to a limited number of The organizational infrastructure is at students, civil servants and private level 1, single. The Ethiopian company users are, however, mainly Telecommunication Corporation is the concentrated in Addis Abeba, with sole Internet service provider, it is only 6 per cent of users located owned by the Government and has the outside the capital. complete monopoly on the Internet service provision market. 5.1.2 Geographic dispersion Geographic dispersion is rated at 1.5, 5.1.6 Sophistication of use between single location and Sophistication of use is at level 1, moderately dispersed. There are minimal. Internet is used by a small 8 towns outside the capital city with part of the population, mainly for PoPs, and Internet access is available conventional applications, such as e- nationwide at the local call tariff. mail and web search. There are a few However, the small number of websites in the local language, and telephone lines and computers, the development of new applications particularly outside the capital, is a is not planned for the moment. serious barrier to Internet diffusion. 5.2 Sector liberalization 5.1.3 Sectoral absorption strategy for Government Sector absorption is rated at level 0.5, rare. The ranking is a function of the Aside from very low levels of economic level of connectivity in government, development in Ethiopia, the diffusion education, health care and business. of the Internet has also been Ethiopian universities have Internet constrained by the legal monopoly of access, although the number of ETC in all telecom-related services, accounts is very limited, and there are along with the lack of policy clarity no leased line connections. Primary over the provisioning of value-added and secondary schools are virtually services such as web design, site untouched by the Internet, with only hosting or cybercafés. The recent 9 out of 12’000 primary schools and institution of a regulatory authority 10 out of 424 high schools having and the plan to study the partial privatization of ETC are important access. A few government steps towards an open market, and departments have rather simple will help the development of websites and the usage by private telecommunication-based services in companies is minimal. There were Ethiopia. However the need for ETC only 38 hospitals out of 110 with dial- to retain its monopoly in services up Internet connection in 2001, and should be carefully examined by the Internet use is usually restricted to country’s policy-makers. e-mails. The justification for continuing these 5.1.4 Connectivity monopolies is usually to ensure that infrastructure sufficient income is generated to roll Connectivity infrastructure is at out infrastructure without it being level 1, thin. International Internet syphoned off by competitors. Although connectivity is 4 Mbit/s outgoing and this strategy may be logical, 10Mbps incoming. There is no experience since the FCC’s breakup of national Internet backbone, nor AT&T, has shown that the only way of domestic Internet exchange point ensuring efficiency of service delivery (actually not necessary with only one is to bring self-interest into play by ISP). There are only about 10 Internet opening the markets and using leased lines currently in place and competition to do much of the broadband Internet access is not regulating. This strategy also helps available. address the limited resources of all

32 5. Conclusions and recommendations

government policy-makers and in question, and it may ultimately be regulators worldwide (even the FCC), more efficient to transition directly who do not have the capacity to keep from a public monopoly to a multi- up with the rapid technological change player competitive environment, with in order to fully enforce regulations. small areas of exclusivity (perhaps down to the Warada level) for rural Furthermore, a large and powerful locations. regulatory apparatus is not as necessary in a country like Ethiopia In preparation for this, the as it is in some developed countries, Government might look to develop a for the reason that less developed transitionary strategy that does not countries do not generally have huge directly affect the monopoly in ETC’s public incumbent telecommunication core business (voice provision and operators that need to be transferred wholesaling of the national backbone), into a competitive environment. as well as laying the groundwork for Rather, new operators entering a the next phase of competition. An competitive environment without a immediate transitionary step would be massive incumbent, should normally to amend the telecommunication law be able to self-regulate to a much to allow for resale of ETC’s services. greater extent. Examples are needed to show that liberalization could have beneficial Another major difference between effects on the market, and to bring developed, and developing, country improvements to the customers and monopolies is that developing to ETC. The licensing of new mobile countries are not encumbered with old operators, ISPs, cybercafés and call technologies which are already being centres would all help provide this used by the majority of the impetus and take the burden off ETC population. Instead, new companies in providing the wide range of value- can make use of next-generation added services that are needed. technologies which are usually cheaper, allowing much smaller This will also help ETC to begin shifting companies to enter the marketplace. its operational culture into a Today, even partial self-provisioning competitive mode, bring additional can occur - as demonstrated by the traffic to ETC, and more generally help rapid growth of the Internet, WiFi and to ‘decentralize’ telecommunication mobile telephony, this is now services, separating wholesale from becoming a model that can be used retail operations, and leaving part of more widely in the telecom sector. the marketing and customer-care activities to private companies In practical terms, while competition operating in different zones and in the telecom sector may indeed regions. The expected results of this result in some overlap and duplication in demonstrating that competitive of resources by the different forces will ensure cost-based pricing competitors, the overall operation of and higher service levels without the the sector is more efficient than a need for strong regulation would also single monopoly. help to address any concerns that an open market will fail to deliver quality Thus, any initial privatization and and affordable services. liberalization of the telecom sector in this day and age should not simply be One of the major difficulties to shift a public monopoly to a private experienced by the regulatory one, which can become even more authority, ETA, is its lack of financial difficult to control, especially if it has autonomy, increasing its dependency a large foreign partner to back it up. on government for decision-making, The record of foreign participation in and low salary levels, making it Africa has generally shown that even difficult to attract and retain skilled the strategy of a limited exclusivity staff. By giving the opportunity to period (usually 5 years) for basic many small private companies to services in urban areas is nowadays apply for licences to resell services,

33 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

ETA could provide itself with new appropriate applications and sources of revenue, enabling it to pay information resources. More higher salaries that would allow it to immediately, it has also been retain skilled staff and to increase its suggested that case studies such as participating in international initiatives the present one should be translated for regulators. into Amharic to facilitate circulation among policy-makers and publication Given the urgent need to improve in the press. Also, leading NGOs, the service delivery for the majority of the Prime Minister’s Office and specific population, new strategies need to be ministries with strong role in developed rapidly by policy-makers government (such as the Ministry of and Government, with a view to Capacity Building and the Ministry of setting a deadline for the opening up Information) might be targeted with of the market and the timely information and recommendations announcement of this date. such as those mentioned in this case study. 5.3 National strategies and policies to increase Certainly, development and Internet diffusion international bodies could usefully further help to promote Government There is clearly a growing political awareness of how the Internet and momentum for improving the use of ICTs can support of national ICTs in Ethiopia, however this is development, encouraging it to make largely focused on the provision of Internet diffusion a top item on the voice facilities in rural areas. Five policy agenda. In this respect, the years after the BITE report, a national Government has a crucial role to play information policy has yet to be in order to create a critical mass of finalized and awareness of the users, local entrepreneurs and skilled importance of improving the ICT technicians. accessibility and use of the Internet is still at a low level. While an As indicated above, the policies understanding of the importance of concerning the liberalization of the ICTs is growing amongst the general Ethiopian telecommunication industry population, this awareness needs to will have the most profound impacts be raised to the highest political levels. on the prospects for broadening access to the Internet and to ICTs in Experience around the world has general. In a competitive market there shown that the rapid diffusion of ICTs in a country is often closely associated are likely to be a variety of innovative with the level of government support. new ideas and opportunities for In the case of Ethiopia, the expansion providing affordable Internet services of Internet infrastructure and services and value-added services in Ethiopia, could be significantly accelerated by as well as encouraging local means of a national programme businesses to exploit the much larger supported at the highest level of information economies of the government. For instance, a national developed countries (as the case task force could be established to study has shown, a few enterprising support ICTs, headed by the Prime businesses are already beginning to Minister and composed of national do this). Some of the possible new experts. Such a task force could serve market arrangements that could occur as the focal point for the high-level in a liberalized environment include: coordination of a number of national initiatives. • Universal service/access obligations for licence applicants, Seminars intended for policy-makers including broadband connection and regulators might also be a useful of public access points (e.g. method to provide hands-on telecentres, schools, libraries, experience of the benefits of a high- etc.) to high capacity networks quality Internet connection with and services;

34 5. Conclusions and recommendations

• Joint ventures between 5.4 Ensuring low Internet cybercafés/telecentres, the access tariffs fixed and mobile line operators, and other investors such as e- The low local call tariff in Ethiopia commerce entrepreneurs to could do much to help promote the offer full-service ICT access, use of the Internet but its benefits content, and business venture have been obscured by the high options to rural communities, as subscription charges for EthioNet, well as to ‘telework’ for which are amongst the highest in developed countries; Africa. These are expected to be revised downwards, but this is unlikely • Specialized start-up companies, to be a sufficiently large reduction to such as public payphone be affordable to a significant number providers, ISPs, etc, of Ethiopians. establishing new points of access, with ETA s support (and There are a number of other strategies in some cases subsidy); that could be considered to lower Internet access prices. One is to create • Opportunities to link these with a business model in which ISPs and rural community radio licences, the telecom operator share the local such as through UNESCOs telephone usage charge and eliminate Community Multipurpose the ISP charge. This also simplifies Centre (CMC) programme. billing. A related strategy would be to investigate a very low flat-rate or even ETA s liberalization policy could be a free option for Internet access as is structured to encourage these kinds the practice in Peru and Chile. Clearly, of activities, tapping the potential of if the ISP sector is liberalized, then the under-served markets of Ethiopia ISP licence fees will need to be low in to create the incentives for those order to encourage small startup with ingenuity and vision to bring companies to enter the market and both economic development and to avoid the high fees simply being greater social equality to Ethiopians. passed on to the consumer in the form of higher usage charges. Aside from liberalizing the sector this will primarily require government Prices for leased-line Internet access investment in education and training, also need review. Use of the Internet along with taking measures to cut and e-mail has increased the demand input costs and consumer prices by by many businesses customers for supporting the development of local permanent circuits. The availability, capital markets and other forms of quality, and especially price of these finance, reducing import duties and data services, has a direct impact on speeding business registration, an increasing number of regular licensing and import clearance customers, as opposed to the few procedures. large corporations that traditionally had large budgets for the use of While the kinds of activity mentioned private-line and data services. above are necessary, policies also need to be developed that facilitate In addition, if the ISP sector is to be the increased use of the Internet in opened up, they must be able various sectors, such as education, purchase high capacity links between health, e-commerce, etc. (see their PoPs and in effect resell leased below). lines provided by the telecom operator to their customers. The price that is A framework for the periodic paid for these data circuits will directly measurement and evaluation of affect the price that end users must progress could also be developed in pay for Internet services. This fact, association with these initiatives. and the general importance of data

35 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

communication in today’s interna- universal service fund, using a small tional economy, underscores the percentage of the licensed operators’ importance of competitive pricing for turnover (or tax contributions) to fund private-line and data services. unprofitable services in rural areas. In addition, it could be possible to Consideration also needs to be given encourage organizations with a large to allowing ISPs and customers to self- network of public offices such as banks provision their Internet infrastructure or the post office to work together to (as is becoming increasingly popular provide Internet access. in other African countries), full liberalization of KU-band VSAT and 5.6 Sectoral support wireless for data in the 2.4GHz and strategies 5GHz wavebands. This will greatly encourage investment by government 5.6.1 E-commerce and development assistance partners With the global moves toward the use in linking public institutions to the of e-commerce it is important that Internet and ultimately build much Ethiopia develop adequate greater demand for broadband and e-commerce enabling policies which trunking infrastructure from the are synchronized with global trends telecom operator. This would not affect and standards. Government ETC’s primary revenue base of voice leadership is needed to impart the use calls and trunking. However, of e-commerce with authority, frequency monitoring equipment confidence and awareness. In should be obtained to ensure that links particular it should: adhere to power standards and to monitor congestion. • Accelerate the development of e- commerce relevant legislation. In 5.5 Universalizing access particular, digital signatures and contracts, intellectual property, The majority of Ethiopians are unlikely taxation, encryption, privacy, to be able to afford a telephone line, network security and computer individual Internet access or a crime, liability, and consumer personal computer to access the protection; Internet. Although there are a some cybercafés in the country, they • Support government-to-business operate in a grey area, are located in projects such as electronic the largest cities and are relatively payment of taxes, customs expensive. Clarifying current policy duties, public procurement, etc.; and liberalizing the sector will likely result in a reduction of prices and an • Develop government-to- explosion of facilities offered by the consumer applications such as in private sector, as evidenced in many agricultural trading markets that other African countries. To ensure that are relevant to a significant part these facilities also reach public of Ethiopian society; institutions and the rural areas, a policy promoting shared Internet • Legitimize and consolidate the access from public locations should business and trade directories also be developed. This would also that currently exist for the have the benefit of providing users country. with facilities to access training of many types. Coordination is needed to unify e- commerce initiatives taking place As a first step towards promoting nationwide through establishment of shared access in rural areas and in a task force comprising government, the public sector, service providers development agencies, the private could be required to provide services sector and civil society. at cost for community access points such as schools and libraries. Another Awareness raising and education is option would be to establish a needed for the public and the business

36 5. Conclusions and recommendations

community of the potential of Local content development could e-commerce and ICTs in general. The benefit from support, through special diffusion of successful e-business tax and credit incentives for the models, development of pilot projects, development of local websites in and a toolkit on how to set up an e- economic sectors in which Ethiopia business will help to improve the has competitive advantages, such as prospects for e-commerce agriculture, tourism, etc. The development in the country. production of local content and a national e-commerce sector could be Support for electronic transactions in enhanced by establishing incubators general needs to be urgently in different geographical areas with accelerated in Ethiopia before the the adequate conditions and with the benefits of e-commerce can be seen. cooperation of research and This could be in through the development units of private sector, introduction of GSM transactions, universities, and public institutions. credit cards and prepaid/smart cards. This would include making the 5.6.2 E-government necessary legislative and institutional Government should lead by example reforms to enable credit card through its use of ICTs to carry out its payments over websites and could be public service functions. Government developed through an alliance of as an active ICT user would private and public sector interests the simultaneously increase its own use of e-commerce prepaid cards (a efficiency and demonstrate the gains concept similar to the successful that can be realized through new model used in cellular mobile services). information and communication technology. Small-scale services and products can often more adequately meet local An e-government initiative could needs, but are unable to attract capital include establishing a well-developed because of the small sums required. government site. This would build on Given the scarcity of venture capital existing sites developed by various available in Ethiopia for local small and ministries by providing appropriate medium size enterprises (SME) with links and more consistency. The e-commerce initiatives, the ‘electronic parliament’ project could Government and local financial also be part of this programme. institutions should consider the possibility of establishing a fund for Some other areas in which the specific e-commerce initiatives. Ethiopian Government can pursue this leadership function are through: Inefficient shipping/clearing and delivery of goods will undermine the a) The establishment of a competitiveness of many e-commerce transparent electronic procu- initiatives (as it does for normal rement system available to all businesses). Given it is a landlocked interested parties on the territory with a very undeveloped Internet; transport infrastructure, Ethiopia probably suffers more than many b) The deployment of intranets and other low-income nations from the networked team practices aiming transport barrier. One action to at the assimilation of modern improve the situation could be to work practices typical of promote cooperation among e- networked learning organiza- commerce companies to achieve tions; economies of scale in the delivery of their products. Furthermore, it is c) The use of the Internet in public important to seek lower costs and services that depend heavily on increased efficiency among customs information for policy making clearance, shipping and transport such as employment, transporta- companies. tion, and energy.

37 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

5.6.3 E-education resources to connecting them Education is a critical component for directly to the Internet. The successful Internet adaptation and emergence of low cost WiFi and use. Ethiopia might want to consider KU-band VSAT (USD 2’000 per some of the following strategies to terminal) for Internet access now enhance the performance of the makes providing connections in country’s education sector, and rural areas a more affordable prepare its population for using the possibility and strategies to Internet: capitalize on this should be developed. In addition, the a) Experience around the world planned introduction of GPRS on has shown that progress in the the GSM service could aid in the area of ICTs will be limited if provision of access for mobile teachers are unaware of, or users and others in remote reluctant to accept, information communities covered by the technology as an educational signal, provided that tariffs tool. In Ethiopia, there is not yet remain low for this service. a national programme to train teachers in the use of ICTs for d) The cost of communication education. Public and private services is high for most school institutions could establish a and university budgets. There is national programme to no formal requirement to provide familiarize teachers at all low-cost communication access educational levels with basic for the educational sector. The knowledge about the use and Government might usefully potential of ICTs. introduce mechanisms to promote the delivery of b) Distance education has great communication services at low potential for countries with cost to educational institutions limited resources and significant nationwide. These could include rural areas such as Ethiopia. special tax consideration for the There is a need to provide operators, direct subsidies to further support to projects like schools in the startup period, and AAUnet, ESTC’s distance other schemes such as adopt-a- education programmes and school programmes that could be other national initiatives aimed promoted among international at building knowledge and organizations and the Ethiopian experience in the provision of diaspora. education over the Internet. e) Government, local private c) Given the central role that sector, and civil society technology plays in the organizations could seek the generation of wealth today, ICT support of the international training and applications should business community to fund ultimately be integrated into programmes to provide every stage of the educational technology tools (such as new process, at the levels of primary and recycled computers, and secondary school, higher software applications, books and education, and vocational other instructional materials, etc) training, and become part of the and state-of-the-art knowledge national curriculum. While the on technologies and applications. provision of more basic resources for the educational f) Instilling a culture of information system will need to take place sharing should be an overarching first in a country like Ethiopia, part of many of these initiatives the establishment of shared to address what many call the access centres for surrounding “highland culture” which is rather schools could be considered closed and not conducive to open before allocating scarce information exchange.

38 5. Conclusions and recommendations

5.6.4 E-health deployment because it operates largely on the basis of cash-flow from The health sector in Ethiopia as in revenue generation. ETC has not most other parts of the world lags exploited the local (or international) behind other sectors in the country in capital markets for loans, which could adopting ICTs. Much of this slow pace be a ready source of finance for is associated with a lack of awareness increasing the pace of rollout of the among the medical community of the network. Fortunately access to hard cost/benefit that underlies the currency appears not to be a problem, adoption of new technologies like the as it is in many other African countries. Internet. An existing proposed telemedicine project supported by ETC Adopting regional type-approval of and ITU has not yet got off the ground, telecom equipment would reduce but measures such as this will clearly delays in adoption of new technologies help to approve the awareness in this and decrease the demands on limited sector. This delay should be resources within ETA. addressed, and other measures that could be considered include: To provide temporary access for visitors to Ethiopia and for EthioNet a) Develop an awareness campaign customers travelling abroad it is to highlight with precise data to suggested that ETC consider joining the health sector, the cost and one of the two major roaming service benefit relation if technologies providers, IPASS (www.ipass.com) or like the Internet are adopted. GRIC (www.gric.com). These services operate by using the Radius protocols b) Support an annual conference on to authenticate users remotely and telemedicine in Ethiopia where charging a small additional fee experiences are presented and (usually about USD 6 per hour) which opportunities offered by new is billed back to the user’s home communication technologies are system, allowing the providers of the discussed. roaming service to earn extra income from roving users. As there are many c) Identify, at the international temporary diplomatic and level, the institutions that are international agency users visiting currently providing support Ethiopia, EthioNet should be able to (through soft, long-term loans, derive significant income from the and philanthropic projects) for service. the advancement of e-health and telemedicine in developing A web-based version of the public nations and solicit their support telephone directory should be required for the implementation of specific by the Telecom operator’s licence and pilot projects in the country. requested to ETC for the 2002 update. d) Incorporate health-related 5.8 Other observations functions, applications, and links to the Internet-connected The extremely low tariff of the mobile telecentres that are being created service (up to 5 times lower than throughout the country. Promote many other African GSM providers) such opportunities among the local would be worth further study and health community. promotion as a case study. The advantages of not having to pay a high 5.7 General operational licence fee and excessive interconnect strategies for ETC and ETA charges is clearly benefiting the consumer considerably, but this does On a financial basis, ETC only pays not entirely explain why GSM corporate tax to the Government but operators in much more competitive is still limited in its ability to increase environments in other countries are expenditures on infrastructure charging such high tariffs

39 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

Annex 1 Framework dimensions

Table 1: Pervasiveness of the Internet

Level 0 Non-existent: The Internet does not exist in a viable form in this country. No computers with international IP connections are located within the country. There may be some Internet users in the country; however, they obtain a connection via an international telephone call to a foreign ISP.

Level 1 Embryonic: The ratio of users per capita is on the order of magnitude of less than one in a thousand (less than 0.1%).

Level 2 Established: The ratio of Internet users per capita is on the order of magnitude of at least one in a thousand (0.1% or greater).

Level 3 Common: The ratio of Internet users per capita is on the order of magnitude of at least one in a hundred (1% or greater).

Level 4 Pervasive: The Internet is pervasive. The ratio of Internet users per capita is on the order of magnitude of at least one in 10 (10% or greater).

Table 2: Geographic Dispersion of the Internet

Level 0 Non-existent. The Internet does not exist in a viable form in this country. No computers with international IP connections are located within the country. A country may be using UUCP connections for email and USEnet.

Level 1 Single location: Internet points-of-presence are confined to one major population centre.

Level 2 Moderately dispersed: Internet points-of-presence are located in at least half of the first-tier political subdivisions of the country.

Level 3 Highly dispersed: Internet points-of-presence are located in at least three-quarters of the first- tier political subdivisions of the country.

Level 4 Nationwide: Internet points-of-presence are located in all first-tier political sub-divisions of the country. Rural dial-up access is publicly and commonly available and leased line connectivity is available.

Table 3a: Sectoral Use of the Internet

Sector Rare Moderate Common

Academic - primary >0-10% have leased-line 10-90% have leased-line >90% have leased-line and secondary schools, Internet connectivity Internet connectivity Internet connectivity universities

Commercial- >0-10% have Internet 10-90% have Internet >90% have Internet businesses with > 100 servers servers servers employees

Health-hospitals and >0-10% have leased-line 10-90% have leased-line >90% have leased-line clinics Internet connectivity Internet connectivity Internet connectivity

Public-top and second >0-10% have Internet 10-90% have Internet >90% have Internet tier government servers servers servers entities

40 Annexes

Table 3b: The Sectoral Absorption of the Internet

Sectoral point total Absorption dimension rating

0 Level 0 Non-existent

1-4 Level 1 Rare

5-7 Level 2 Moderate

8-9 Level 3 Common

10-12 Level 4 Widely used

Table 4: Connectivity Infrastructure of the Internet

Domestic International Internet Access Methods backbone Links Exchanges

Level 0 Non- None None None None existent

Level 1 Thin £ 2 Mbps £ 128 Kbps None Modem

Level 2 Expanded >2 > 128 kbps 1 Modem – 200 Mbps -- 45 Mbps 64 Kbps leased lines

Level 3 Broad >200 Mbps >45 Mbps More than 1; Modem -- 100 Gbps -- 10 Gbps Bilateral or Open > 64 Kbps leased lines

Level 4 Immense > 100 Gbps > 10 Gbps Many; Both < 90% modem Bilateral and Open > 64 Kbps leased lines

Table 5: The Organizational Infrastructure of the Internet

Level 0 None: The Internet is not present in this country.

Level 1 Single: A single ISP has a monopoly in the Internet service provision market. This ISP is generally owned or significantly controlled by the government.

Level 2 Controlled: There are only a few ISPs because the market is closely controlled through high barriers to entry. All ISPs connect to the international Internet through a monopoly telecommunications service provider. The provision of domestic infrastructure is also a monopoly.

Level 3 Competitive: The Internet market is competitive and there are many ISPs due to low barriers to market entry. The provision of international links is a monopoly, but the provision of domestic infrastructure is open to competition, or vice versa.

Level 4 Robust: There is a rich service provision infrastructure. There are many ISPs and low barriers to market entry. International links and domestic infrastructure are open to competition. There are collaborative organizations and arrangements such as public exchanges, industry associations, and emergency response teams.

41 Ethiopia Internet Case Study

Table 6: The Sophistication of Use of the Internet

Level 0 None: The Internet is not used, except by a very small fraction of the population that logs into foreign services.

Level 1 Minimal: The small user community struggles to employ the Internet in conventional, mainstream applications.

Level 2 Conventional: The user community changes established practices somewhat in response to or in order to accommodate the technology, but few established processes are changed dramatically. The Internet is used as a substitute or straight-forward enhancement for an existing process (e.g. e-mail vs. post). This is the first level at which we can say that the Internet has "taken hold" in a country.

Level 3 Transforming: The user community's use of the Internet results in new applications, or significant changes in existing processes and practices, although these innovations may not necessarily stretch the boundaries of the technology's capabilities. One strong indicator of business process re-engineeering to take advantage of the Internet, is that a significant number (over 5%) of Web sites, both government and business, are interactive.

Level 4 Innovating: The user community is discriminating and highly demanding. The user community is regularly applying, or seeking to apply the Internet in innovative ways that push the capabilities of the technology. The user community plays a significant role in driving the state-of-the-art and has a mutually beneficial and synergistic relationship with developers.

42 Annexes

Annex 2 Meeting Schedule 11-15 March 2002

Monday 11 March Morning Mr Seife Mulugeta, Head, Standard and Quality Control department, Ethiopian Telecommunication Agency (ETC) Ms Rosemary Arnott, British Council Afternoon Mr Mulat Agumas, General Manager, Ethiopian Telecommunication Agency (ETA) Mr Wossenyeleh Tigu, Head of Legal Services, ETA Mr Tilahun Kebede and Mr Ibrahim Sanou, ITU Regional office for Eastern Africa. Tuesday 12 March Morning Mr Fanta Adane, Internet Services Division Manager, ETC Mr Moges Teferra, Deputy General Manager, Telecom Services Department, ETC Mr Adaga, ex-Deputy division Manager for Telemedicine and Manager IT and New Services, ETC Afternoon Mr Asmare Abate, Telecommunication General Manager, ETC Mr Abdul Semed, Marketing Division Manager (Tariffs), ETC Wednesday 13 March Morning Ministry of Infrastructures Mr Amre Almayehu, Director Mobile Services Department, ETC Prof. Habtamu, Head of African Virtual University, and Dean of continuing and distance Education division, University of Addis Abeba. Afternoon Mr Eshetu Fantaye, Practice Director, Africa, and Mr Jon Jones, Practice Director, Transnational Computer Technology (TCT) Mr Robel Dressa, Multimedia division, ETC Thursday 14 March Morning Mr Eshetu Alemu, Director National computer and information center, Ethiopian Science and technology commission (ESTC) Mr Haileyesus Mezgebu, Head IT Department, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia Afternoon Mr Dawit Bekele, Professor, Addis Abeba University, Director Manager of Ethiolink Mr Berhanu Seboka, Manager, Global Development Learning Network Center, Ethiopian Civil Service College. Visit to the college’s Global Distance Learning Center Friday 15 March Morning Mr Abi Woldemeskel, General Manager, Ethiopian Investment Authority Mr Solomon Mammo, Manager, IT Department, Dashen Bank Mr Sirak Yohannes, Information and Communication Technology Manager, UNDP Afternoon Debriefing