AMBO, around 100 km west of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, is one of the cities in Ethiopia that recently welcomed the introduction of 4G telecom services by Chinese high-tech giant ZTE — a major partner of Ethio-Telecom, the East African country’s sole telecom service provider so far, along with Chinese telecom giant Huawei.

Ethio-Telecom, which is recognized as one of Africa’s oldest telecom service providers, has more than 56.2 million subscribers, with more than 25 million data and Internet users.

The company, which aspires to increase its subscribers to 64 million by the end of the just-started Ethiopian fiscal year, is striving to expand its data and internet users by 16.2 percent to 28.5 million.

As part of its ambition to provide modern telecom service to its users, the Ethiopia’s sole telecom service provider partners with Chinese tech companies, mainly Huawei and ZTE, to realize its 4G LTE telecom service expansion.

At a ceremony held last week in Ambo to mark the launch of 4G LTE telecom service in the central-west Ethiopia, Frehiwot Tamiru, CEO of Ethio-Telecom, said the launch of the latest Chinese-built 4G services is part of the telecom service provider’s three-year growth plan to expand modern telecom services to more than 100 Ethiopian cities.

“The 4G service you’re using currently is 14 times faster than the 3G service you were using until now,” Tamiru told Ambo city dwellers as they welcomed the introduction of 4G LTE service in their area.

During the second half of Ethiopia’s last fiscal year that ended July 7, Ethio-Telecom had connected 68 Ethiopian cities with 4G telecom services, in which the engagement of Chinese companies had been a major impetus.

Sun Yue, wireless chief technical officer of ZTE Middle East and Africa, said the Chinese firm has been striving to provide up to date technology to Ethiopia for more than a decade.(SD-Xinhua)