Africa mobile subscribers grow 33%… the clear laggard in Africa was Ethiopia which retained a monopoly both on fixed-line and mobile telephone services.
(Reuters) — African mobile operators added 70-million users in the past year, a growth rate of 33 percent, and expanded cell phone coverage by an area the size of France, industry organisation GSMA said on Tuesday.
Africa now has 282-million mobile phone users out of a population of around 960-million, but more than 300-million people living in rural areas still have no cell phone coverage, the GSM Association (GSMA) said.
Around 66 percent of the population are reached by a mobile phone signal, up from 62 percent in 2007.
Some African countries, such as Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, already have a coverage well above 90 percent, the GSMA said.
The industry is committed to spending more than $50 billion over five years in sub-Saharan Africa to boost the coverage to 90 percent of the population, the GSMA said, adding investment could even be higher if the regulatory environment was right.
Gabriel Solomon, a senior vice-president for public policy at the GSMA, told Reuters a study for the industry group concluded last year that an additional 25 percent could have been invested in Africa under ideal circumstances.
“If you look at our $50 billion, that could lead to an incremental $12,5-billion over the next five years invested,” he said at the sidelines of the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Telecom Africa conference.
An ITU report prepared for the conference also argued that further privatisation, moves to increase competition and more independent regulators could give Africa’s telecoms industry, whose fast growth has attracted interest from buyers in Europe, the Middle East, India and China, a fresh boost.
Solomon said the clear laggard in Africa was Ethiopia which retained a monopoly both on fixed-line and mobile telephone services.
“I know that our members would be ready to invest in Ethiopia tomorrow if they got a licence,” he said.
In other countries, competition is heating up.
“If you look at Kenya for example, this time last year there were two operators, today there are four… Uganda now has six licences. So you have to ask yourself are these sustainable, will some of these guys drop out, will it lead to consolidation?” Solomon said.
One thought on “Ethiopia lagging behind in telecom due to state monopoly”
Meles knows monopoly is the way to do business with other business people who hate competition. The reason Meles likes monopoly is that monopoly allows him to fix the price of any product that his monopolized industries produce at a higher price and this would hurt consumers but gives a larger profit to Meles Seitanawi. If any company wants to open a new business in Ethiopia, Meles may not allow the company to get permission from Meles government because Meles has already a monopolized company that produces the same products. If the new company, however, gets permission to open its business, it may sell its products at a lower cost and there by attract many customers to buy its products. When this happens, the Meles monopolized industry will lose its customers; it could not compete with the new company; therefore, it has to be shut down, and Meles would lose money – a large amount of money, and that is why Meles does not want to permit other companies to open their businesses in Ethiopia unless the companies are owned by Meles or his wife Azeb Mesfin.
Privatization creates competition, and competition creates the quality of a product and gives customers a chance to choose between two or more products for their lowest prices and highest qualities. Once in power, Meles does not have to compete with any body; if someone tries to compete with him, he would send his death squad against that person and sends him to Kaliti or destroy him. That is what happened to the 2005 election – an election that could have given a victory to the opposition party had the ruling party not stolen the ballots.
For Meles Seitanawi, competition is a bitter pill to swallow up, so he avoids it by any means he could. Let Ethiopia compete in sports alone, but not in other businesses. The Ethiopian farmers compete with each other; the Ethiopian Orthodox Church competes with the other foreign Churches in Ethiopia to evangelize the non-Ethiopian Christians. The taxi drivers compete with the other taxi drivers, and the prostitutes compete with the other prostitutes; the barbers compete with the other barbers, but with whom Meles Seitanawi competes except with himself or with his wife; even though his wife is, according to the Ethiopian culture, under his control, which is good and commendable.
When a country competes with other countries and the competition is fair and just, it becomes wiser and wealthier, but Ethiopia cannot compete with any other country, because Ethiopia is the monopoly of Meles Seitanawi and his wife Azeb Mesfin. Therefore, no one is able to tell Meles his time is over, but he does not want to leave because he controls almost everything in Ethiopia but the sun, the moon, and the stars. For him so many things will be at stake if he leaves office. If he leaves, where will he go, and what about the blood shed that he has shed? Who will give him the license to leave Ethiopia if he wants to leave? And to whom will he hand the country, to his son, to one of his army generals, or to Abune Paulos? If he wants to leave the country, how much money is he going to take with him? All these things are legitimate questions we have to answer them now than later.