According to media reports, in Ethiopia, state-owned Ethio Telecom has threatened legal action against Safaricom Ethiopia after line installations allegedly cause service blackouts.
This comes after Ethio Telecom’s customers experienced service disruptions in Semera, a city in the eastern region of Afar.
A statement released by the telcos asserted that telecom line installations carried out by Safaricom Ethiopia had “severely damaged” Ethio Telecom’s communication lines passing through the Afar region and Djibouti.
BMA understands that service blackouts were reported, although Ethio Telecom assured that “extensive repairs have been carried out” and that connectivity had been restored. However, the incident escalated further when the state-owned operator declared it would “be making legally accountable those who committed the act without prior notice”.
The dispute means that Safaricom comes under fire a mere two months after the full debut of its services in Ethiopia. It was reported in November that the new entrant had already amassed one million customers, meaning that an average of 20,000 customers had signed up daily since it commenced customer pilots in August 2022.
Disruptions caused by its line installations come during an expansionary period for Safaricom Ethiopia.
The telecom company recently announced that it aims to add coverage in 25 cities before April 2023, posing a significant challenge to Ethio Telecom’s market control.
The potential impact of legal proceedings on expansion plans could influence the success of such projects, with no response yet given by Safaricom on the matter.
