Ethiopia Internet Case Study

community does not only include

5.1.5 Organizational

network technicians, but it is also

infrastructure

extended to a limited number of

The organizational infrastructure is at

students, civil servants and private

level 1,  single. The Ethiopian

company  users are, however, mainly

Telecommunication Corporation is the

concentrated in Addis Abeba, with

sole Internet service provider, it is

only 6 per cent of users located

owned by the Government and has the

outside the capital.

complete monopoly on the Internet

service provision market.

5.1.2 Geographic dispersion

Geographic dispersion is rated at 1.5,

5.1.6 Sophistication of use

between  single location and

Sophistication of use is at level 1,

moderately dispersed. There are

minimal. Internet is used by a small

8 towns outside the capital city with

part of the population, mainly for

PoPs, and Internet access is available

conventional applications, such as e 

nationwide at the local call tariff.

mail and web search. There are a few

However, the small number of

websites in the local language, and

telephone lines and computers,

the development of new applications

particularly outside the capital, is a

is not planned for the moment.

serious barrier to Internet diffusion.

5.2

Sector liberalization

5.1.3 Sectoral absorption

strategy for Government

Sector absorption is rated at level 0.5,

rare. The ranking is a function of the

Aside from very low levels of economic

level of connectivity in government,

development in Ethiopia, the diffusion

education, health care and business.

of the Internet has also been

Ethiopian universities have Internet

constrained by the legal monopoly of

access, although the number of

ETC in all telecom related services,

accounts is very limited, and there are

along with the lack of policy clarity

no leased line connections. Primary

over the provisioning of value added

and secondary schools are virtually

services such as web design, site

untouched by the Internet, with only

hosting or cybercafes. The recent

9 out of 12'000 primary schools and

institution of a regulatory authority

10 out of 424 high schools having

and the plan to study the partial

privatization of ETC are important

access. A few government

steps towards an open market, and

departments have rather simple

will help the development of

websites and the usage by private

telecommunication based services in

companies is minimal. There were

Ethiopia.  However the need for ETC

only 38 hospitals out of 110 with dial 

to retain its monopoly in services

up Internet connection in 2001, and

should be carefully examined by the

Internet use is usually restricted to

country's policy makers.

e mails.

The justification for continuing these

5.1.4 Connectivity

monopolies is usually to ensure that

infrastructure

sufficient income is generated to roll

Connectivity infrastructure is at

out infrastructure without it being

level 1,  thin. International Internet

syphoned off by competitors. Although

connectivity is 4 Mbit/s outgoing and

this strategy may be logical,

10Mbps incoming.  There is no

experience since the FCC's breakup of

national Internet backbone, nor

AT&T, has shown that the only way of

domestic Internet exchange point

ensuring efficiency of service delivery

(actually not necessary with only one

is to bring self interest into play by

ISP). There are only about 10 Internet

opening the markets and using

leased lines currently in place and

competition to do much of the

broadband Internet access is not

regulating. This strategy also helps

available.

address the limited resources of all

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