ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia plans to award two telecoms licenses to multinational mobile companies by April 2020, breaking the state monopoly by April, the new communications regulator said on Tuesday, an apparent delay in the timeline officials had previously set. Balcha Reba, director general of the Ethiopian Communications Authority, gave the date at a press conference. In June, Reuters reported that Ethiopia would issue the licenses by the end of the year, quoting Ethiopian officials and telecoms executives with direct knowledge of the process. The issuing of licenses will end a state monopoly and open up one of the world's last major closed telecoms markets in the country of around 100 million. (Reporting by Kumera Gemechu; Additional reporting by George Obulutsa and Giulia Paravicini; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by David Evans)

Source: Ethiopian News October 22, 2019 12:56 UTC