The Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC), the country's only state-owned information and communication technologies provider, said Thursday it has been undertaking a big project aimed at enabling some 2.4 million subscribers get mobile telephone service.

Abdurahim Ahmed, chief public relations officer with the company, told journalists that the project being carried out in three phases are expected to be finalized during the current budget year.

The firm has begun its first round mobile telephone expansion project with cellphone giant Nokia to provide service to 350,000 subscribers during the past budget year, while it has so far provided the service for some 200,000 subscribers, said Abdurahim.

Some 150,000 customers out of Addis Ababa city will get the service during the next few weeks, he added.

The expansion work being carried out during the first round project is expected to benefit some 103 small, medium and large rural kebeles, or communities, Abdurahim said.

In the second phase of the project, the firm has already provided 250,000 mobile telephone lines for subscribers in Addis Ababa.

Meanwhile, installation of equipment as well as trial services are enabling carried in a bid to provide the service to 225 towns, according to Abdurahim.

In addition to the expansion projects being carried out in two phases, the firm has planned to provide 5 million additional mobile telephone lines in its third round expansion project, he added.

The firm has so far spent some 671 million birr (77.4 million US dollars) for the first and second round expansion projects while 328 medium and large rural cities have become beneficiary of mobile telephone service, he said.

The number of mobile telephone users has reached over 650,000 across the country, according to official data.

Ethiopia, one of the world's poorest and least-wired nations, wants to expand information and communication technologies coverage to the entire country in three years.

Ethiopia has a massive rural population of 57 million people, most of whom depend on subsistence farming. Around half the population can't read or write, few have access to newspapers or phones and most have never used a computer.

Source: Xinhua