Ethio Telecom introduces new products and tariffs including lower tariffs for mobile voice service, reduced price for new mobile SIM card and optimized broadband service packages which will become effective on April 1. The company has also put in place a flat rate tariff for the mobile voice service where nationwide call from mobile phones in one region to other mobile phones in another region will cost 72 cents at peak hours and 30 cents off-peak hours as of April 1, thereby ending the existing tariff zones, according to company’s CEO Jean Michel Latute.

The company has reduced the price of new SIM cards from the current 85 birr to 60 birr while the price for SIM card replacement increased from 15 birr to 45 birr, according to the statement the CEO made at a press conference on Wednesday.

Aside from the mobile services, the company has put on the table ADSL (broadband) services for residential customers for the first time while it presented additional EVDO services with lowered tariffs for businesses. The new EVDO service has three packages (1GB, 2GB and 4GB) while the company quit providing unlimited EVDO service package “to ensure quality of the service.” The company has introduced three ADSL service packages ranging from 2GB to 6GB monthly usage for a monthly charge of 400 to 700 birr and subscription fee of 400 birr for each service.

Meanwhile, Ethio Telecom External Communication Manager Abdurahim Ahmed said that incidents related to the cutting of fiber optics lines in different places across the nation has become a prevailing problem for the company, preventing it to provide quality services to customers. The manager said that the company is trying to use various means to mitigate the problem including installing additional fiber optics and micro wave links.

By Hayal Alemayehu