Electric Power, Safaricom Ethiopia Sign Fiber-Optics Lease Deal
ADDIS ABABA – Safaricom Ethiopia signed a lease agreement with Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) which allows the telecom firm to utilise EEP’s dark fiber-Optic line to provide telecom services in the East African nation.
The five-year lease agreement to share the infrastructure was signed by CEO of EEP Ashebir Balcha, and CEO of Safaricom-Ethiopia, Anwar Soussa, on Thursday.
Safaricom is expected to start its operation next month – eight after it formally received its telecoms license to operate Ethiopia.
Its officials said the shared infrastructure will be used as part of Safaricom Ethiopia’s network to provide national telecommunications services in forms of voice, data, video, text, messages, and conferencing.
The first phase of the lease agreement allows the telecom firm to share 4097km, the second phase 2078km and the third phase 2904km long optic-fiber lines, according to the EEP.
Safaricom said the latest cooperation from EEP is on a win-win partnership to support its contributions to the digital transformation of Ethiopia.
“Such infrastructure sharing agreements will enable us to fulfill our commitment to transform Ethiopian lives for a digital future and contribute to efforts being made to the phased operation launch,” said Soussa.
Ethiopian Electric Power will get an annual revenue of 140 million birr from the first phase of the infrastructure lease agreement.
Ethiopia’s state-owned electric producer currently has 15, 000 long fiber-optics lines. At least 8,745 of it is being utilized by Ethio telecom on a lease and its in house communication office.
[Featured Image Safaricom ET]
