editorial
The last decade or so has been characterized by exponential growth in infrastructure. Similarly, the telecom industry has been booming in Ethiopia during the last few years that many areas have now become interconnected and millions have accessed one or more services from this industry.
This in turn has helped people both in the rural and urban area easily access information and data that are useful for different purposes. However, the sector has attracted severe complaints from the society at large mainly due to lack of adequate quality in the delivery of different services.
Amid all the ups and downs, Ethio Telecom has indicated that it has achieved its main targets set for the last five years and has achieved the GTP goals. But, the corporation should work for more qualified service and access to infrastructural delivery.
A recent study conducted by Forum for Social Studies(FSS) has found out holes in the systems in terms of pricing, penetration, and service quality.
The country still has a low internet penetration rate. Since the introduction of mobile and wireless telephone access in Ethiopia, the expansion of fixed lines has dwindled significantly. Hence, there is a lot needed to be done to improve these and other loopholes in the sector. It is only when such and other gaps are successfully filled that it is possible to ensure quality.
Even though the telecom industry has recently undertaken a huge expansion project in terms of telecom and other IT services, the network problem, still needs to be abated. At the core of all the major challenges stated above is an information and knowledge gap that needs to be narrowed down.
Considering the 21st century is frequently referred to as the information era, it comes as a no brainer that developing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) would immensely help provide the ammunition in fighting the vises weighing down on our society. Cognizant of this, the Ethio Telecom should see its responsibility broadly as an agent of multi-sectoral development.
As the rest of the sectors in the economy, ICT also enjoyed a remarkable development in the last decade. The coverage of internet, mobile and wireless telephone services along with other information and communication technologies was barely existent just over a decade ago. Sustaining these commendable achievement is mandatory and vital for the development of the sector itself and other sectors. For instance, the number of mobile phone subscribers has reached 34 million from 6.5 million in 2010, showing the dramatic growth the sector has experienced in the last five years.
There, however, are numerous problems related to quality and coverage of the service as the sector is only expanding and still a long way from maturity. It has been quite a while now since the public has started to complain about the horrible reception on mobile phones.
The problem, though has shown relative improvement in Addis since the last few months, is still unabated in areas outside the capital. It is hardly possible to easily access the network in areas farther from the capital. Reception quality is relatively better in small road side towns and major cities leaving much of the hinter land out of range.
Such communication barriers certainly affect the country’s development efforts negatively as the increased economic activities apparent nationwide would be better served with the availability and accessibility of ample information. The availability of high quality, accessible and reliable internet and telecom services makes the process of starting up and running business easier as governmental, private and non-governmental organizations would find it easy to make themselves more accessible. This in turn will allow increased productivity through better management and administration.
Low quality, inaccessibility and unreliability of the technologies would, on the other hand, hamper business from flourishing as it would lead to problems of credibility, timeliness, pricing, capacity building, networking and market expansion. The impacts of these problems obviously leave their marks on all sectors of the economy along with economic activities as price setting and exporting; thus posing themselves as obstacles to the development efforts in the country.
Taking such a role the sector plays in the overall development and growth of the country in to account, Ethio Telecom should sustain its commendable achievements with relentless effort and stave off all the bottlenecks behind its services in the near future.