Safaricom Ethiopia Begins Phased Network Rollout

ADDIS ABABA – Safaricom Ethiopia has today begun a large-scale customer pilot of its network in Dire Dawa City.

This is part of its phased city-by-city regional network roll-out and rigorous service tests ahead of a national launch in October.

The company said the customer pilot in Dire Dawa will be on 2G, 3G, and 4G networks.

Customers can purchase SIM cards and choose their preferred numbers on Safaricom Ethiopia’s 07 prefix from three shops opened in the city of Dire Dawa.

The services come with a welcome offer of Data, Voice, and SMS for customers to test and experience the network for one month.

On Safaricom Ethiopia’s test network in Dire Dawa, customers will be able to use data services, make calls and send SMS to Safaricom Ethiopia and Ethio Telecom customers, and make international calls worldwide.

“We are excited to begin our customer pilot for Safaricom Ethiopia’s network and services in Dire Dawa,” said Anwar Soussa, Chief Executive Officer of Safaricom Ethiopia.

“This is an important milestone as we begin opening the network to customers in order to test the end-to-end readiness of technical and commercial operations ahead of the full network launch,” he said.

“We will continue to share updates, as we extend the network and customer pilot across other regions, towards our National Launch in October 2022”.

This customer pilot in Dire Dawa is part of switching on Safaricom Ethiopia’s network and services in 25 cities by April 2023.