A French company is going to manage the state-owned telecoms provider, the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC), after winning the contract ahead of South African and Indian bids, government officials informed Capital.
ETC attracted many foreign companies when it floated a bid a few months ago inviting firms to undertake its management in a revenue sharing agreement.
However, only the three companies remained for the final selection process, according to the source.
MTN, a telecoms company based in South Africa and BNS an Indian firm were beaten by the French firm. However, despite extensive efforts, Capital was unable to discover from ETC the name of the victorious firm.
“I am out of the capital and it is difficult to give releases without referring to documents”, Amare Amsalu, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ETC, explained to Capital.
Though the winner is already known, negotiations with the company are still required, a source said, explaining the withholding of the information.
The firm will be responsible for introducing new schemes to reform how the state run telecom conducts its core operations, ranging from service provision to infrastructural maintenance, according to Diriba Kuma, Transport and Communications Minister, who spoke to Capital on the issue a month ago.
According to Minister Diriba, the winning international firm will also be expected to earn ETC huge revenues by creating new markets, while also reforming the corporation’s core services.
ETC is currently embarking on a massive 1.5 billion dollar expansion of all of its telecom services. Improvements range from offering various local and international language choices, to a 997 information service, to building an optical fibre network in order to create an efficient internet connection for the nation, 90 percent of which should be covered by the increasingly popular 3G CDMA phones.
“The transformation process the new company is to lead will kick off as soon as the ongoing expansion with ZTE is completed,” Minister Diriba, said.
Some experts have suggested that the continuing monopoly by the state of telecoms is a contributing factor to the country’s low level of development in that sector.
However, the move to hire a foreign management company looks to many like a step to liberalisation, although ETC insists this is not the case.
“The telecoms industry chain will remain under the state’s control,” Diriba told Capital.