Consultative workshop held on Ethiopia's new broadband initiative
By Mercy Wambui, ECA, 29 March 2005

A consultative workshop on Ethiopia’s ICT development was held on 29 March 29, 2005 with the objective of introducing the general public to ETC’s expansion of the ICT infrastructure to provide multiplicity of services, such as data, voice and video.

Plans for the new upcoming broadband initiative are already underway to revolutionize Ethiopia’s entry into the Information Society in the coming year through the introduction of among others, ADSL - a broadband connection technology which utilizes existing copper wired telephone networks. ADSL will deliver much higher speeds – between 10 and 40 times faster than a standard 56K modem. Users can download or upload huge amounts of voice, data and multimedia and use the phone while online.

The workshop was organized by Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC), in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Speaking at the opening, Ms. Aida Opoku-Mensah, Officer-in-charge in ECA’s Development Information Services Division (DISD) urged that consideration be given to the policy and regulatory implications of broadband that policy makers will have to ponder. Highlighting the issue of technological convergence and the challenges emerging from the spread of broadband that is now redefining the global economy, she noted that new regulatory frameworks would be necessary to deal with the convergence between broadcasting, IT and telecommunications.

She also questioned the focus on broadband as purely a simple regulatory issue, and urged that the issue be addressed in the context of promoting competitiveness of Ethiopia's industries and fostering the link between connectivity and the economy, such as job creation.

Pointing to Malaysia’s experience in this regard, she raised the importance of providing incentives to those who invest in the deployment of broadband and outlined some new priorities for action, including combating cyber-crime, dispute resolution in e-commerce, taxation, authentication and electronic signatures.

The specific nature of Ethiopia, which does not have a liberalized market means that the new challenges posed by broadband technologies will be compounded by the need to develop strong rules and practices on basic competition regulation that have not yet been adequately formulated. She named the need to address universal service and access financing, tariff control, interconnection and accounting separation as key in rolling out broadband, adding that competition can only be established and maintained if it is commercially viable to do so and as a way of spreading services?

She also highlighted the role ECA has been playing in bringing together a community of national regulators to share information and cooperate in practical areas and to build capacity, such as the African Telecommunication Regulatory Network (ATRN) as part of supporting NEPAD`s ICT infrastructure agenda.

Critical to realizing broadband is the design of a policy framework that encourages the vast amounts of local and foreign investment needed, together with a regulatory regime that provides certainty and transparency and guarantees fair competition and consumer protection”. She said.

Participants expressed mixed feelings about the broadband initiative, citing ETC’s past record and inability to provide reliable services. Key among the concerns raised was the cost to the end-user, which they suggested might need revision in order to help recruit customers and help ETC improve its services. Key private sector users of the broadband services lamented ETC’s “promise to provide convergent services and packages but without clarifying the restrictions that go with the package” - case in point being the restrictions over the use of VOIP.

Further, the role that ETC expects private sector and other partners was an issue they felt

ETC is yet to clarify. Although the new forward-looking and dynamic ETC team is implementing drastic customer service reforms, there was a cautiously optimistic reception of the initiative by participants, who felt that “infrastructure and improved services is one thing, but infrastructure without local content would be counterproductive”.

“Content development is lacking in Ethiopia, said the Chairperson, Dr. Hailu Ayele, adding

“This is an area that needs to be seriously developed as it provides money-making opportunities for recent graduates.” Participants also urged ETC to move away from retailing services and leave that to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

ETC representatives responded with appreciation, and promised a better future of convergence, customer satisfaction and employee incentives to make broadband a sustainable reality. In terms of human resource capacity building to sustain the new broadband initiative, ETC-sponsored diploma and Graduate programmes will be put in place.

Currently, broadband access is only available by satellite to major corporations and VOIP usage allowed for corporate closed usage but not extended to the wider public. It was disclosed that tapping into the submarine fiber cable in neighboring Djibouti would depend on talks between both governments.

“We the end-users will hold ETC accountable”. Said Dr. Hailu.