Ethio Telecom Reports Exceptional Surge in Internet Users

Yesterday, Ethio Telecom released its half-year report, which showed that the company has increased its data and internet users by 5.2 million users in just six months.

This represents a significant increase from the 26.1 million internet users Ethio Telecom reported in June 2022 and is the largest increase in internet users in the operator’s history, according to data collected from Statista and Ethio Telecom.

The half-year internet users’ growth also surpasses the growth recorded in voice subscribers, which was 3.2 million.

The state-owned operator also reported reaching 70 million subscribers and a 20% rise in half-year revenue to 33.8 billion birr ($633 million). However, the share of the revenue from data remains almost the same as last year, standing at 28%.

“In our first-ever performance review in a competitive market, we have seen tremendous achievements both in customer base and revenue! The company’s profit has also grown dramatically,” Mohammed Haji, Chief Sales officer at Ethio Telecom wrote on Linked-In.

According to Mohammed, Ethio Telecom is the 22nd largest operator in the world and the 2nd largest operator in Africa.

Telebirr, which was launched in May 2021, has gained more than 27.2 million customers and transacted a total of 166.1 billion birr in the economy in six months, generating an income of 82.5 million birr.

Rival Safaricom Ethiopia launched commercial mobile network services in October and now covers at least 21 cities across the country.

Shega’s efforts to uncover the reasons behind Ethio Telecom’s rising data and internet user numbers have been unsuccessful despite trying various sources.