December 20, 2018 (Ezega.com) - Ethio-Telecom announced rate reductions on international calls and international Short Message Service (SMS) effective December 21, 2018.
International calls rates will be reduced from 10 to 40 percent, whereas international SMS rates will be reduced by 51 percent.
Rates will be reduced by 40 percent for calls to South America, 20 percent on 70.9 traffic to Europe, and 20 percent on 99.8 traffic to North America.
Also, 15 percent reduction will apply on 85.6 percent traffic to Oceania, 15 percent reduction on 98.94 traffic to Asia and Middle East, and 10 percent reduction on 28.3 percent traffic to Africa.
Ethio-Telecom CEO Frehiwot Tamiru said the enterprise was encouraged to cut tariffs following the recent tariff reductions on mobile and broadband services that had positive feedback.
“By continuing our move to make our services more affordable and bring about customer satisfaction, we are happy to introduce up to 40 percent tariff reduction on 71 percent of international voice traffic destination countries”, Frehiwot stated.
Ethio-telecom will also make 51 percent tariff reduction on international SMS across all destinations effective tomorrow.
In August this year, the Ethio Telecom reduced rates by 43% on mobile internet, 40% on voice call, 43% on SMS and 54% on broadband internet services.
Accordingly, the new tariff, mobile phone call is 0.50 birr per minute, down from 0.83 birr. The price for mobile internet service per MB is 0.23 birr, down from 0.35 birr. The company also reduced 33-44% on mobile internet packages.
For a long time, Ethiopia has had one of the most expensive internet and communication rates in the world. Even with the new rates, the country will still be more expensive than in much of the world, making Ethiopia home to one of the lowest internet penetration rates in the world.
Also, Ethiopians calling from abroad pay far more than Asians and other Aricans do because of the exorbitant amount Ethio-Telecom charges telecom carriers.