• Ethio Telecom has signed a new agreement with Ericsson to expand and modernize its telecom network.

• The project will upgrade about 1,500 mobile sites and expand 4G and 5G capacity.

• The investment aims to strengthen coverage and maintain the operator’s lead as competition grows in Ethiopia’s telecom market.

Ethiopia’s state-owned operator Ethio Telecom announced on March 5 that it has signed a new agreement with Swedish equipment maker Ericsson to modernize and expand its telecom network. The agreement was signed during the Mobile World Congress taking place this week in Barcelona, Spain.

The project includes network expansion, infrastructure modernization, the addition of new 4G layers, and increased capacity across 1,500 mobile sites within the portion of the network managed by Ericsson.

Ethio Telecom said the initiative will significantly improve network coverage, service quality, and overall capacity. By replacing older infrastructure with newer technologies, the operator plans to expand 4G coverage and capacity while also extending its 5G footprint to support faster broadband connectivity needed for a growing digital economy. The company said the project will also place particular emphasis on improving connectivity in rural areas.

Expanding network coverage could allow Ethio Telecom to reach new users in a country where only 44% of the population had access to 4G services in 2024, according to data from the International Telecommunication Union.

The network upgrade is also expected to increase overall capacity and improve service quality.

Those improvements could strengthen Ethio Telecom’s competitive position in Ethiopia’s telecom market, which it now shares with Safaricom. Safaricom entered the market in October 2022 and had about 10 million active telecom subscribers as of July 2025.

Ethio Telecom remains the dominant operator. As of December 2025, it reported 87.1 million subscribers, including 49 million internet users and 58.6 million users of its mobile money service Telebirr.

Isaac K. Kassouwi