Second city is the nation’s Place of Remedy
Kenya-based telco the Safaricom Group has launched a customer pilot network for Dire Dawa, Ethiopia’s ‘second city’ which is known by legend as The Place of Remedy. The remedy is this case is a plan for a mass deployment that will see Safaricom Ethiopia start a six month roll out of services that aims to light up 23 cities by April 2023.
The nearest rival to the capital city Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa is home to half a million Ethiopians, reports The East African. The epic roll out comes four months after Safaricom Ethiopia missed an operational launch in the celebrated Horn of Africa. The big deployment is part of the telco’s planned phased city-by-city roll-out ahead of a national launch that starts in October.
In Dire Dawa residents can already buy 07 prefix SIM cards, choose their numbers and access 2G, 3G and 4G network services, said a company statement.
“We are excited to begin our customer pilot for Safaricom Ethiopia Dire Dawa. This is an important milestone and we [will] begin opening the network to customers in order to test the end-to-end readiness of technical and commercial operations ahead of full network launch,” said Safaricom Ethiopia chief executive officer Anwar Soussa.
The firm has set up three customer care centres in Kezira, Meskelegna and Cornell for registration, SIM card and device purchases and other client-support services. The SIM cards are also available in branded shops and come with a welcome offer of data, voice and SMS for a month. Customers will also be able to purchase airtime vouchers to recharge.
Customer care services from the call centre will be available in Amharic, Tigrigna, Somali, Afan Oromo and English by dialling 700. Customers will be able to access data services, calls and text messages to or from Safaricom Ethiopia lines and the state-owned Ethio Telecom network. They can also make or receive international calls.
“This customer pilot in Dire Dawa is part of switching on our network and services in 25 cities by April 2023, working in partnership with government, businesses, local communities, and others stakeholders as part of our long-term commitment to transforming lives for a digital future in line with the Digital Ethiopia objectives,” said Soussa.
Since getting the licence in July 2021, Safaricom Ethiopia has invested in its network and building infrastructure, including its own mobile radio towers, national transmission network and wholesale agreements for international connectivity.
Last month, it said it had invested $1 billion in its Ethiopian division. They money was spent on imported equipment, said to be worth $300 million, development of its own core network and IT. Its service infrastructure includes a newly set up call centre and two custom-built data centres.
The telco has also recruited 500 staff, 320 of whom are Ethiopians. Safaricom is the first private telecom company in Ethiopia.