The government will also offer a minority stake in Ethio Telecom, the monopoly operator, and foreign firms will be invited to bid. "We have announced the market structure as 'two plus one'," State Minister of Finance Eyob Tekalign Tolina told Reuters by telephone, referring to the two new licenses and a 49 percent stake in Ethio Telecom, the monopoly operator. Ethiopia is also one of the final frontiers globally for multinational telecoms companies. Reuters reported last month that the government had decided to issue two new licenses in part because preparing Ethio Telecom for a partial sale is proving a lengthy process. [L8N23J39U]The government will expect the winning companies to start operations next year, initially using Ethio Telecom's infrastructure to run their networks, the sources said.

Source: Ethiopian News July 05, 2019 14:15 UTC