Next Horizon Year II: Elevating Experience, Delivering the Quality Our Customers Deserve!
Ethio telecom is driving a transformative digital future by seamlessly aligning its corporate ambitions with national goals and continental visions. Through its overarching corporate strategy, the operator translates the ambitious goals of Digital Ethiopia 2030 and the broader Digital Africa 2063 initiative into impactful execution, playing a pivotal role in shaping the continent’s digital destiny and driving sustainable, inclusive growth.
Stemming from this broader vision, Ethio telecom’s three years’ Next Horizon: Digital & Beyond 2028 strategy serves as the company’s roadmap to reinvent its operational role. Moving decisively beyond traditional connectivity, the Next Horizon strategy transforms our company into a globally competitive, regionally diversified, and digitally empowered enterprise building innovative platforms, solutions, and ecosystems that catalyze national development and unlock new opportunities in the global digital economy.
As the Company enters Year II of the strategy, this ambition remains firmly anchored, while the focus now deepens toward translating the foundation and progress achieved into elevated customer experience, enhanced service quality, and greater value across every customer touchpoint.
In line with this, the strategy provides the Company’s long-term roadmap to strengthen market leadership, accelerate its Telco-to-TechCo transformation, diversify revenue streams, enhance customer experience, and support Ethiopia’s digital economy and national development agenda.
The successful implementation of the strategy’s first year delivered strong progress across key strategic priorities, including expanding digital infrastructure and connectivity, strengthening the telebirr ecosystem, growing enterprise, cloud and digital services, improving operational excellence, and driving sustainable financial performance. These achievements have reinforced Ethio telecom’s competitive position while creating greater value for customers, shareholders, employees, partners, and the nation.
Building on this approach, Ethio telecom conducted a comprehensive review of the remaining strategy period under its rolling strategic planning approach. The review assessed strategic performance and evaluated the evolving macroeconomic, regulatory, technological, competitive, and geopolitical environment to ensure continued strategic relevance and organizational agility. The refreshed strategy refines investment priorities, strategic initiatives, performance targets, and resource allocation while reaffirming the Company’s long-term vision of becoming a globally competitive, regionally distinguished digital enterprise.
Customer at the Center: Deepening Excellence Across Network & Service
Ethio telecom remains firmly committed to elevating customer experience and Quality of Experience (QoE) by adopting a holistic approach that goes beyond network expansion and focuses on delivering consistent, reliable, and customer-centric services across all touchpoints. A comprehensive analysis has been conducted covering customer expectations, service performance, network capability, operational processes, and emerging market dynamics to identify key improvement areas and define targeted quality enhancement initiatives. The Company will continue to strengthen network excellence through expansion, modernization optimization, resilience improvement, proactive service assurance, and technology-driven performance management, while also enhancing every customer interaction point across digital channels, service centers, sales outlets, and support platforms.
Strengthening the Foundation: Building Capacity for Ethiopia’s Digital Future
Network expansion, modernization, and digital infrastructure advancement remain at the heart of Ethio telecom’s strategic agenda for the 2019 EFY. As Ethiopia accelerates toward a digitally enabled economy, Ethio telecom is undertaking a comprehensive, multi-dimensional infrastructure expansion program to close the digital divide, enhance nationwide connectivity, improve Quality of Service, and build the capacity required to support exponential growth in data consumption.
STRATEGIC INTIATIVES THROUGH THE THEMATIC AREAS
TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION AND DIGITAL SOLUTION LEADERSHIP
To significantly improve the quality of service and elevate the customer experience, Ethio telecom has designed various strategic initiatives to drive the expansion, enhancement, and modernization of emerging technologies. Spanning wireless technology, fixed and transport networks, cloud and data center infrastructure, information technology, and information security, these initiatives aim to strengthen technological capabilities, accelerate digital transformation, and position the company as a leader in innovative digital solutions.
- Wireless Network Strategic Initiatives
Mobile Network Capacity: The mobile network expansion and modernization program aims to significantly enhance network capacity, coverage, and service quality to support Ethiopia’s growing digital economy. Total network capacity will increase from 115.1 million to 135.7 million subscribers capacity, while 4G capacity will expand from 22.79 million to 35.31 million and 5G capacity will nearly double from 1.41 million to 2.70 million, enabling faster, more reliable, and next-generation digital services.
LTE Expansion: The number of 4G sites will increase from 6,924 to 11,014 by adding 5,417 sites, extending population coverage from 82.23% to 95% and geographic coverage from 36.3% to 54%, while LTE-covered towns will grow from 1,200 to 1,500. Macro sites will expand from 10,159 to 11,179, rural sites from 454 to 1,059 to improve connectivity in underserved areas, indoor solutions from 510 to 634 sites to enhance in-building coverage, and Massive MIMO deployments from 424 to 1,161 sites to increase network capacity and data throughput.
5G Expansion: The 5G rollout will continue with the expansion of 5G sites from 340 to 648 and an increase in 5G-covered towns from 33 to 73, extending advanced connectivity across the country.
Fiber to the Tower: Microwave-to-fiber conversion will further strengthen transmission infrastructure by increasing fiber connectivity across multiple network categories, including Addis Ababa (AA) from 96% to 98.5% (1,548 to 1,724 sites), Category 2 (C2) from 61% to 95% (1,059 to 2,374 sites), Category 3 (C3) from 34% to 50% (252 to 448 sites), and Categories 4 and 5 (C4/5) from 6% to 8% (420 to 559 sites), thereby enhancing backbone resilience and supporting high-speed data transmission.
Rural Connectivity: Briding The Digital Divide
Empowerment Without Exception: Expanding Access Across Every Kebele
To connect underserved communities and successfully bridge the digital divide, our company is aggressively expanding its rural network footprint. During the budget year, the company will deploy 1,685 additional mobile sites, including 605 dedicated rural sites, bringing vital connectivity to over 1,400 kebeles and 4.5 million citizens. However, coverage is only part of the effort; Ethio telecom is also driving true digital inclusion by boosting affordable smartphone penetration and leading widespread customer education campaigns for digital literacy. Together, these initiatives empower remote populations with seamless access to education, healthcare, financial services, and economic opportunities.
Fixed Network Strategic Initiatives
Fiber-Powered Growth: Building The Digital Backbone Of Economic Growth
Ethio telecom will strengthen national broadband infrastructure through the deployment of 1,000,000 new DQODN assets and implementation of Copper-to-Fiber upgrades, and expansion of backbone fiber infrastructure from 23,442 km to 25,642KM. To deliver internet and support the nation’s digital growth, Ethio telecom is aggressively expanding its high-speed fiber network. This includes accelerating the nationwide Copper-to-Fiber migration, expanding enterprise and smart-city connectivity solutions, and integrating AI-driven network management to ensure a resilient, ultra-reliable digital experience for homes and businesses alike.
Residential broadband subscriptions are targeted to grow by 227.4 thousand, while business subscriptions are expected to increase by 28.3 thousand. Beyond connectivity expansion, the company will enhance its competitiveness through tailored SME, enterprise, and government digital solutions, simplified service packages, and integrated fixed-mobile broadband bundles that provide greater value and convenience to customers.
Network Infrastructure Development Initiatives
Expanding National and Regional Fiber Infrastructure: Fiber infrastructure will be expanded to strengthen national connectivity, improve network resilience, and support Ethiopia’s digital transformation agenda. Key initiatives include achieving 25% completion of the Cross-Border Regional Fiber Deployment through Kenya to enhance regional and international connectivity, connecting 20% of the 68 zonal administrations through fiber networks to expand high-capacity broadband access, introducing Horizon Fiber to establish new backbone routes, and expanding the national backbone fiber network from 23,442 km to 25,642 km.
Powering Sustainable Connectivity Through Green and Resilient Infrastructure
Energy and sustainability initiatives include increasing grid-supplied power from 358.07 GWh to 391.74 GWh, boosting solar power generation from 39.72 GWh to 52.31 GWh, decreasing annual fuel consumption from 10% and lowering CO₂ emissions by 0.64%.
International Gateway (IGW)
To strengthen Ethiopia’s global digital connectivity and service resilience, Ethio telecom is aggressively expanding its international gateway capabilities. Key initiatives include increasing International Gateway (IGW) and cache capacity from 4.3 Tbps to 5.2 Tbps integrating major global content delivery networks such as Google, Meta, Netflix, Cloudflare, and CDN77 Cache and launching services via submarine cable IRU capacity. These strategic enhancements will ensure faster, smoother data flows, support digital exports, and firmly position Ethiopia as a leading regional digital transit hub.
- DIGITAL FIRST, CUSTOMER CENTRIC, EXPERIENCE EXCELLENCE
Ethio telecom will accelerate its transformation into an AI-enabled, customer-centric digital technology company by enhancing customer engagement, expanding digital ecosystems, and improving operational intelligence. The company will strengthen hyper personalization, omnichannel customer experience, digital self-service, and customer journey management to deliver more convenient, responsive, and personalized services. Key initiatives include increasing SuperApp adoption to 50% of eligible smartphone users, expanding digital channels to achieve 40% self-service adoption, conducting 360-degree customer activation campaigns, strengthening customer research and market intelligence, and enhancing customer awareness and digital literacy programs.
2.1 Information System Strategic Initiatives
Building Next-Generation Digital Infrastructure
Ethio telecom is rapidly advancing its TechCo transformation by embedding artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and advanced digital platforms across its operations. Key highlights include rolling out AI-driven personalization and Hyper-Personalization using advanced tools for customers, scaling telebirr into an all-in-one financial ecosystem, and modernizing cloud and enterprise. By expanding secure APIs, enhancing enterprise systems, and driving in-house software development, in the budge year Ethio telecom will continue to deliver agile, secure, and innovative digital solutions while building a scalable foundation for Ethiopia’s digital economy.
Modular Data Center Capacity:
Modular Data Center expansion is planned to upgrade the IT load capacity from from 5 MW to 6.24 MW, adding 1.24 MW to support future computing demand. The number of racks will expand from 624 to 752 racks, adding 128 racks to accommodate additional IT equipment. Similarly, the rack space will grow from 26,250U to 32,266U, an increase of 6,016U, providing the physical capacity required for new servers, storage, and networking equipment.
Cloud Infrastructure Expansion:
Expand cloud infrastructure capacity to support growing digital service demand by increasing Elastic Compute Service (ECS) capacity from 24,064 to 54,784 vCPUs, scaling GPU/NPU infrastructure from 16 accelerator cards to 268 AI servers, doubling Enterprise Storage from 3 PB to 6 PB, and expanding Cloud Container Engine (CCE) capacity from 1,500 to 3,500 vCPUs while maintaining 94 Bare Metal Servers (6,016 vCPUs) and 4.5 PB Object Storage. These enhancements will provide a scalable, high-performance, and AI-ready cloud platform capable of supporting next-generation digital services, enterprise workloads, and future business growth.
INNOVATIVE BUSINESS DIVERSIFICATION & SUSTAINABLE VALUE CREATION
To accelerate its transformation into a diversified digital technology and platform leader, Ethio telecom is expanding beyond traditional connectivity to build high-growth digital businesses and ecosystems. During the budget year, the company will scale key platforms and services, including telebirr, digital financing, cloud services, and the ZemenGebeya e-commerce marketplace, while strengthening its international digital footprint through Horizon Fiber and expanded cross-border connectivity.
- Products and Services
Human-Centric By Design: Listening, Responding, Creating Value
To drive sustainable business growth and accelerate Ethiopia’s digital transformation, Ethio telecom is expanding its digital service portfolio with 312 new and enhanced offerings across consumer connectivity, digital lifestyle, fintech, enterprise connectivity, enterprise solutions, and international business. The new offerings are designed to address customers’ evolving needs, create greater value for individuals and businesses, and enable enterprises to grow and scale. The portfolio will also continue to evolve through ongoing customer feedback and insights, ensuring services remain relevant, accessible, and responsive to market needs.
Enhancing Smartphones Penetration
Ethio telecom plans to supply more than 2.6 million connectivity devices, including 1 million ZNEXUS affordable cloud-based smart devices, to accelerate digital inclusion, increase device accessibility, and drive the adoption of digital services across the country.
Smartphone penetration will be further supported through znexus device initiatives, device financing schemes, bundled offers, and affordability-focused campaigns, with the objective of converting 65% of mobile customers into broadband users and stimulating higher mobile data consumption.
The company is also advancing next-generation enterprise solutions, including electronic invoicing, IoT platforms, and AI-powered services, while expanding opportunities in financial inclusion, personalized digital experiences, data-driven services, and EV charging infrastructure.
Through this diversification, Ethio telecom is creating new sources of sustainable growth, expanding digital opportunities for individuals and businesses, and strengthening the digital infrastructure and platforms that will power Ethiopia’s emerging digital economy.
AI POWERED, DIGITAL-DRIVEN, OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
In the 2026/27 budget year, Ethio telecom will continue advancing its operational excellence by embedding AI-driven automation, intelligent network monitoring, robust cybersecurity frameworks, and sustainable resource optimization across the entire organization. By streamlining business processes through BPO automation, modernizing enterprise architecture, and scaling supply chain efficiencies, the company is significantly reducing operational costs and minimizing revenue leakage. Backed by advanced disaster recovery capabilities, asset monetization, and targeted digital workforce upskilling, these ongoing enhancements are building a highly agile, secure, and data-driven enterprise equipped to support long-term, sustainable growth.
Cybersecurity, Digital Trust, and Cyber Resilience: Strengthen cyber resilience framework to protect critical infrastructure, digital platforms, and customer data against evolving threats. Initiatives include enhancing enterprise security governance, privacy and regulatory compliance, identity and access management, data and application security, network security, security operations, cloud security, Service Assurance, DPI QoS utilization and expansion, and business continuity capabilities. Additional security solutions include Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Digital Rights Management (DRM), wireless security, API marketplace security, 5G/IoT/OT security platforms, enterprise security architecture, digital forensics tools, and honeypot deployment. These measures will enhance digital trust, regulatory compliance, and protection of national digital infrastructure.
EMPOWERED, AGILE & FUTURE-READY HUMAN CAPITAL
As Ethio telecom accelerates its evolution into an agile, innovation-driven technology enterprise, the company is making strategic investments in its most vital asset: its human capital. By fostering a high-performance culture through structured leadership development and targeted performance management, Ethio telecom is equipping its workforce with critical, future-ready skills in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data analytics, and digital leadership.
Simultaneously, the company is championing an inclusive and equitable workplace by driving workforce diversity, championing gender equality, and expanding professional opportunities for women and underrepresented groups, particularly in rural and underserved areas. Enhanced by accessible workplace facilities and accommodations for employees with disabilities, this combination of continuous upskilling and a deeply inclusive culture ensures a resilient, highly capable workforce prepared to drive long-term innovation and sustainable value creation.
TRUSTED BRAND, PURPOSEFUL IMPACT & SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Ethio telecom will strengthen its position as a trusted, purpose-driven digital technology leader by enhancing brand value, expanding social impact, strengthening stakeholder relationships, and advancing sustainable business practices. The initiatives focus on building customer trust, promoting digital inclusion, creating shared value, and reinforcing the company’s role in Ethiopia’s digital transformation journey.
Brand Transformation and Strategic Communication Excellence: enhancing brand positioning and reputation through a refreshed brand strategy, targeted communication, and enterprise-wide communication excellence. Key initiatives include revamping brand positioning, implementing targeted communication campaigns, measuring communication impact, and developing an enterprise communication strategy.
Social Impact and Digital Inclusion: Expanding social contribution and digital inclusion programs to bridge the digital divide and create meaningful community impact. Expanding sociality and digital access in underserved areas, and supporting community-focused initiatives, the company will promote inclusive digital participation and contribute to national development priorities.
MAJOR BUSINESS TARGET
Customer Base
Ethio telecom has targeted to achieve accelerated growth across all business segments during the Next Horizon: Digital and Beyond 2028 strategic period, driven by network expansion, service innovation, digital adoption, and Ethiopia’s broader socio-economic transformation. In the 2019 EFY, a 6.7% increase in its total customer base has been targeted, reaching 96.2 million customers. Mobile voice subscribers are expected to grow by 6.2% (5.4 million additional customers) to 92.3 million, while mobile data and internet users are projected to increase by 16.5% to 60.01 million, reflecting the accelerating shift toward digital connectivity and data-driven services. Fixed broadband customers are targeted to grow by 25.6% to 1.26 million, contributing to an overall telecom penetration rate of 82.1%.
telebirr: Powering Financial Inclusion and Ethiopia’s Digital Economy
As a key driver of digital financial inclusion and the digital economy, telebirr will remain Ethio telecom’s principal growth engine. The company will expand its reach throughout the country by growing its customer base to 67.69 million (adding 7.1 million users, or growing by 11.7%, during the year) across urban, rural, and deep rural areas following its network footprint.
telebirr transactions
telebirr active users total transactions are projected to reach 4.99 billion and transaction value increasing to ETB 7.4 trillion. These advancements will further position Telebirr as a strategic engine for financial inclusion, digital commerce, and cashless economic transformation, generating in direct revenue while empowering individuals, businesses, and institutions with accessible and secure financial solutions.
telebirr’s Digital Financial Service:
Microcredit is planned to increase from ETB 19.51 billion to ETB 35.04 billion in the budget year, representing a net addition of ETB 13.57 billion (69.6%) growth, driven by increased access to digital lending services for individuals and small businesses. Similarly, digital savings are planned to grow from ETB 18.75 billion to ETB 26.42 billion, achieving a net addition of ETB 7.67 billion (40.9% growth). These initiatives will enhance access to affordable financial services, promote savings and credit utilization, and support Ethiopia’s transition toward a more inclusive digital financial ecosystem.
Merchant and Agent
Ethio telecom continues to expand its digital ecosystem through strategic partnerships and the growth of the telebirr platform. It is planned significant expansion of telebirr ecosystem by strengthening its integrated partners, merchant, and agent networks. The number of merchants is projected to increase from 440K to 569.3K, adding 129.3K new merchants (29.4% growth) to broaden merchant acceptance, expand the digital payments ecosystem, and accelerate the adoption of cashless transactions. In parallel, the agent network is planned to grow from 410.7K to 452.8K agents, adding 42.1K new agents (10.2% growth) to enhance service accessibility, extend customer reach, and support the expansion of digital financial and telecommunications services across both urban and rural areas.
ZemenGebeya Digital Market place
Ethio telecom has planned to position ZemenGebeya as a key digital marketplace (e-commerce) in Ethiopia, targeting the generation of ETB 1.4 billion in gross merchandise value, representing a 279% increase from FY 2025/26. This growth will be driven by increased merchant onboarding, a broader product portfolio, enhanced customer experience, seamless payment integration, and improved logistics and fulfillment capabilities. These initiatives will strengthen ZemenGebeya’s position as a leading digital commerce platform, increase transaction volumes, and accelerate the adoption of e-commerce across Ethiopia.
Sales and Accessibility
To achieve both telecom and telebirr customer targets, aggressive sales and customer retention and win back inititives will be implemented. Total sales target for the budget year is 19.54 Million mobile and 326K fixed broadband sales.
Ethio telecom will further strengthen its distribution and partner ecosystem by expanding dealer networks and service center presence, international partners, integration with banks, financial service providers, aggregators, Startup APP developers through open API to enhance customer accessibility, improve service availability, and support business growth.
Revenue Targets
Delivering Strong and Sustainable Financial Performance
Driven by a clear purpose to achieve sustainable growth and accelerate Ethiopia’s digital transformation, Ethio telecom has targeted to increase total annual revenue to ETB 295 billion during the budget year, representing a 36.7% (ETB 79.2 billion) growth compared with the previous fiscal year. Importantly, growth will increasingly be driven beyond connectivity, with digital and adjacent businesses contributing ETB 77.45 billion, representing 26.3% of total revenue, reflecting the company’s transformation from a telecom operator into a technology-driven digital services provider.
The company will further strengthen Ethiopia’s global digital integration and foreign currency generation capacity through expanded international business, infrastructure sharing, and international money transfer services, which are projected to generate USD 253.7 million in foreign currency earnings.
Profitability:
Ethio telecom projects robust financial results for the budget year, with projected EBITDA reaching Birr 154.4 billion at a margin of approximately 52%. Operating profit (EBIT) is projected at approximately Birr 127 billion, representing an EBIT margin of 43.2%, alongside a targeted net profit margin of 22%.
Cost Excellence and Operational Efficiency
During the budget year, Ethio telecom will continue advancing its efficiency agenda through strategic cost optimization, operational synergies, and disciplined resource stewardship. By deploying targeted initiatives to enhance productivity, leverage advanced technology, strengthen revenue protection, and maximize asset utilization, the company is driving enterprise-wide capital efficiency and sustainable value creation. Through these proactive measures, Ethio telecom targets a total efficiency gain of ETB 10.87 billion, comprising ETB 10.46 billion in strategic cost savings and ETB 410.8 million in revenue enhancement.
CONTRIBUTION TO NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Job Creation and Income Opportunity
Ethio telecom continues to drive national employment and digital inclusion through massive socioeconomic investments.
During the 2026/27 strategic period, Ethio telecom will support more than 644,000 ecosystem partners (such as agents, local suppliers, franchisees, and VAS partners) and sustain its 49,200 employees. Building upon its historic contribution of 2.4 million direct and indirect livelihood opportunities, the company is set to create an additional 163,375 direct jobs and income streams through network and digital platform expansions.
Dividend and Tax
Ethio telecom expects to contribute ETB 43.1 billion in dividends, reinforcing its pivotal role in financing national development and critical digital infrastructure. Driven by robust revenue growth, job creation, supplier activities, and strategic investments, Ethio telecom projects direct and indirect tax contributions totaling ETB 83.8 billion. This includes corporate income tax, VAT, employment taxes, withholding taxes, and customs duties, alongside a dedicated contribution of ETB 8.1 billion for Ethiopia’s National Disaster Risk Response Fund.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG):
Ethio telecom will continue embedding ESG principles into its strategy to create sustainable value and strengthen its role as a responsible digital technology company. The Company will advance environmental sustainability through green energy, energy efficiency, and emission reduction initiatives; enhance social impact through digital inclusion, affordable services, financial inclusion, employee development, and community initiatives; and strengthen governance through compliance, cybersecurity, ethical practices, risk management, and transparent performance reporting to support sustainable growth and stakeholder trust. This is further reinforced by an estimated ETB 533 million in CSR investments apart from national developmental initiatives, highlighting Ethio telecom’s ongoing commitment to sustainable community development.
POTENTIAL RISKS AND MITIGATION STRATEGIES
Ensuring Business Continuity Through Proactive Risk Mitigation
Operating in a dynamic and evolving environment, Ethio telecom maintains a proactive enterprise risk management framework to identify and mitigate strategic, operational, financial, and technological challenges. While navigating macro-level factors such as economic volatility, foreign currency constraints, power interruptions, infrastructure security, and global supply chain pressures, the company ensures uninterrupted operational continuity. To safeguard service availability and business growth, Ethio telecom actively implements robust mitigation strategies, including supplier diversification, advanced procurement planning, enhanced cybersecurity controls, strict regulatory compliance, and the promotion of domestic manufacturing and local supply chain development.
Key Success Factors
Achieving Ethio telecom’s ambitious growth targets for the 2019 EFY will rely on a combination of internal execution excellence and strategic adaptability. As Ethiopia’s telecom and digital ecosystem becomes increasingly competitive and technology-driven, Ethio telecom will continue to prioritize customer experience, service quality, and continuous innovation. While navigating macroeconomic pressures such as foreign currency constraints and inflation, sustained competitiveness will be driven by disciplined financial management, proactive regulatory engagement, supply chain resilience, talent development, and the leveraging of our robust infrastructure. Through these efforts, Ethio telecom will successfully drive sustainable growth and reinforce its role as a core catalyst for Ethiopia’s digital transformation.
Call to Action
Ethio telecom has meticulously developed its comprehensive business plan using industry-leading strategic tools. Thoroughly reviewed and formally endorsed by the Board of Directors and key leadership stakeholders, the plan serves as a robust blueprint for our strategic direction.
In line with our corporate culture, the business plan is cascaded to employees’ level and across all operational units to ensure organization-wide alignment and synergy. This inclusive approach empowers our employees with a deep sense of ownership while integrating valuable ground-level insights into our execution strategy.
We invite all government entities, non-governmental organizations, and strategic industry partners to collaborate with us in executing this vision, driving the success of Ethiopia’s and Africa’s digital economies, and advancing national and continental development agendas.
Ethio telecom
September 3, 2026
