Ethio Telecom has announced major progress in expanding Ethiopia’s digital infrastructure, completing the first year of its Next Horizon: Digital & Beyond 2028 Strategy with significant investments in mobile, broadband and fiber connectivity.
Over the past year, the state-owned operator deployed 603 new mobile sites, increasing its nationwide network footprint to 10,613 sites. The expansion added capacity for 10.2 million users, bringing the network’s total capacity to 115.1 million customers.
To improve network resilience and sustainability, 44% of mobile sites are now equipped with backup generators, while 24% of off-grid sites operate on solar energy, helping ensure more reliable connectivity across the country.
Ethio Telecom also accelerated mobile broadband expansion by extending 4G/LTE services to 264 additional towns, increasing the total number of 4G-enabled towns to 1,200 and raising 4G population coverage to 82.2%. The operator further expanded its 5G network to 33 towns, including seven newly connected locations.
The company strengthened Ethiopia’s digital backbone by expanding its national backbone fiber and Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) network to 23,422 kilometres, supported by 15,615 kilometres of metro fiber infrastructure. Its Optical Distribution Network capacity also reached 1.46 million connections.
As part of its fixed broadband modernization programme, Ethio Telecom migrated 100,000 customers from copper to fiber, helping its fixed broadband subscriber base surpass one million users, including more than 443,000 fiber-optic subscribers.
The operator also increased its international gateway and local content-cache capacity by 1.8 Tbps to a total of 4.3 Tbps, improving access to platforms such as Google, Meta, Netflix, TikTok and Cloudflare while enhancing content delivery speeds and reducing dependence on international bandwidth.
According to Ethio Telecom, the infrastructure investments support Ethiopia’s Digital Ethiopia 2030 strategy by strengthening the country’s digital ecosystem, improving connectivity and enabling greater digital inclusion for citizens, businesses and public institutions.
