Inside Ethiopia’s Internet Boom: Fiber Optics, 5G Dreams, and Starlink Skies
As of early 2025, about 28.6 million Ethiopians were internet users, roughly 21.3% of the population. Ethio Telecom owned about 23,000 km of fiber-optic cable across Ethiopia as of 2023, forming the national backbone and linking to neighboring undersea cables via Djibouti. In late 2024, Ethio Telecom signed a Horizon Fiber corridor deal with Djibouti Telecom and Sudatel to create a multi-terabit cross-border link between Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Sudan. Ethio Telecom launched commercial 5G in Addis Ababa in October 2022, with 145 sites active in the capital by September 2023 and expansion to additional cities planned. Safaricom Ethiopia launched commercial
