Ethiopia is a landlocked
country in East Africa covering an area of 1,127,127 square kilometres and an estimated
population of over 64.9 million people of whom 80% live in rural areas. Ethiopia remains
one of the poorest and least developed country in the world. Its economy is based on
agriculture, which accounts for more than half of GDP, 90% of exports, and 80% of total
employment; coffee generates 60% of export earnings.
The seventeen year civil war
(1974-1991) has devastated the economy and the huge cost of the war left little money for
maintenance let alone development of the existing infrastructure. In May 1991, the
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) took control of the country and
established a transitional government (July 1991-August 1995) which geared the country to
an all-out economic modernisation programme. A new constitution was promulgated in
December 1994 and an elected government was formed in August 1995.
As of 2001, the Ethiopia's
telephone network had over 310,000 connected lines resulting in a telephone density of
0.48 line per hundred population, one of the lowest in the world. In general, the
telecommunications infrastructure is highly skewed in the urban areas (more than 95% of
the total lines), and the capital city Addis Ababa accounting for 57.3% of the total
lines. The Ethiopian Government is currently undertaking a number of reforms to improve
the existing telecommunications infrastructure and to expand the telecommunication
services in both rural and urban areas.
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