Addis Fortune

LG Electronics is opening a million dollar Technical & Vocational Education & Training (TVET) College in September 2013.

The college will offer courses in Information Technology (IT); electronics; and television and cell phone maintenance. According to Yong Geun Choi, representative for LG's Ethiopia office and LG's director of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the Middle East and Africa, the College will also offer additional courses in agriculture.

Choi was speaking at the launch of the LG Hope Village in Sendafa on April 16, 2013.

The Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MoCIT) launched 49 e-service portals developed in order to enable seven governmental institutions give online services at a ceremony held at Churchill Hotel on November 22, 2012.

Two private IT solution providers were involved in developing and installing the e-service system, which cost 3.8 million Br, all provided by the World Bank. Africom Technologies Plc has developed 33 of the e-services with 2.8 million Br and eSystemAfricahad the rest 16 with one million Birr, both after winning the tender a year ago.

Tecno Mobile Ethiopia, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based mobile manufacturer, is to release its first locally assembled smartphone in mid July for a price possibly between 6,000 Br and 8,000 Br.

The new brand, Tecno T3, supports Google's Android 2.3 a smartphone operating system.

Android is a Linux-based operating system for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The initial developer of the software, Android Inc, was purchased by Google in 2005.

A pilot project to use mobile phones to enable health professionals to collect data, have it analyzed and give feedback is to be launched next week at a projected cost of around 370,000 dollars.

The project spearheaded by Technology for Change International, a non-governmental organization, aims to use 1,000 mobile handsets distributed to health professionals in four regions -Amhara, Tigray, Oromia and Southern - to collect data on pregnant women.

Ethiopian Electric Power Cooperation (EEPCo) and ethio-telecom, which reported losses of US$4.2 million and US$3.6 million, respectively, due to theft and intentional damages on their infrastructure this year, appealed to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) for stringent legal measures on those accused of committing these acts.

Ethio Telecom, the country's sole telecommunications provider, is seeking a new round of financing as it ramps up expansion plans geared towards meeting the telecommunication sector development goals set out in the GTP.

In a tender issued on June 7, 2011, interested international suppliers were invited to submit expressions of interest (EoI) for the turnkey expansion of Ethio Telecom's network, based on a vendor financing scheme.

Ethio-Telecom (the new brand name for incumbent ETC) stopped making unlimited EVDO Internet access available to customers on Friday, April 1, 2011. The announcement of the revised packages and new products was made on Wednesday, March 30, by the service provider at a press conference held by Abdurahim Ahmed, manager of external communications, and Jean Michel Latute, CEO, both from Ethio-Telecom. The former is the France Telecom manager bought in to provide strategic management to the company.
 

Construction of Ethiopia's first Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Park, under the supervision of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MoCIT), has begun.

During the first phase, an IT business incubation building, administration and data centres, as well as an MoCIT building is being constructed at an estimated cost of one billion Birr, on 70ht of the total 200ht allotted for the par, located in an area known as Yerer in Bole Sub City on the outskirts of the capital.

Prosecutors of the Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (FEAC) amended the charge they had brought against individuals they accused of running businesses that facilitated the placing of illegal international telephone calls, and added two more defendants, on Tuesday, January 12, 2011.

Following a three-month investigation, the prosecutors had initially charged 15 individuals with the maladministration of government work and corruption that cost the government and the public 16.2 million Br.

A new road construction technology from Israel, which involves changing the soil density by treating it with an enzyme, and which costs around 650,000 Br, is to be used for the road from Imperial Hotel to Yerer through Gerji.