Ethiopia's newest telecommunications operator Safaricom has signed a five-year lease agreement with state-owned electricity company Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) to share the Horn of Africa country's dark fibre infrastructure, in the first infrastructure deal with Ethiopia.
Under the agreement, Safaricom will use a network of optical earth wire (OPGW) cables already installed along high-voltage transmission lines owned by EEP. The five-year lease agreement for the shared infrastructure was signed by the CEO of EEP Ashebir Balcha and the CEO of Safaricom-Ethiopia.
Safaricom welcomes Ethiopia's cooperation in the infrastructure sector and the company's willingness to work with EEP for a win-win situation. "We appreciate EEP's collaborative spirit in terms of win-win partnerships to support our contribution to Ethiopia's digital transformation," said the company's CEO.
Safaricom said it had completed preparations to launch commercial operations to provide telecommunications services to Ethiopians, becoming the first private and foreign entity in the country to offer these services.
The shared infrastructure will be used as part of Safaricom's ET network to provide national telecommunication services in the form of voice, data, video, text, messaging and conferencing, the signing ceremony said.
According to the EEP, the first phase of the lease agreement allows the telco to share 4,907 kilometres, the second 2,078 kilometres and the third 2,904 kilometres of fibre-optic lines.
The state-owned electricity producer currently owns 15,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cable, and Ethio Telecom is leasing at least 8,745 kilometres.
