Ethiopia-China-US Telecom War: Ethiopia shuns China-backed consortium, favours US
Addis Ababa: China's attempt to establish economic dominance in Africa received a jolt recently when a U.S.-backed consortium beat out one financed by China in a closely watched telecommunications auction in Ethiopia.
The East African country recently said it tapped a group of telecommunications companies led by the U.K.’s Vodafone Group PLC to build a nationwide, 5G-capable wireless network.
The group had won financial backing for the multibillion-dollar project from a newly created U.S. foreign-aid agency, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The agency offers low-interest loans, but the financing comes with a condition: The money won’t be used to buy telecom equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. Washington considers both a spying threat, an accusation the companies deny, reports the newspaper.
South Africa’s MTN Group Ltd emerged as the losing bidder.
The company's proposal was financed in part by a Chinese investor, reports said.
The Ethiopian Communications Authority said in a statement: "Following a transparent and competitive process that required a significant evaluation of technical and financial qualification requirements, the Government of Ethiopia through the Ethiopian Communications Authority and the Ministry of Finance, awarded today the Global Partnership for Ethiopia, a consortium consisting of Vodafone of UK, Safaricom of Kenya, Vodacom of South Africa, Sumitomo Corporation of Japan, CDC Group (UK’s development finance institution) and DFC (US’s International Development Finance Corporation) a nationwide full-service Telecommunications Service Operator License."
"The process marks a new milestone in Ethiopia’s Telecommunications service provision, by opening the sector for competition," read the statement.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
