[1] These efforts have been hampered by the largely rural makeup of the Ethiopian population and the government's refusal to permit any privatization of the telecommunications market.
[2] The state-owned Ethio Telecom (previously known as Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC)) is the sole Internet service provider (ISP) in the country.
A test conducted by a Media Ethiopia researcher in July 2007 determined that the average connectivity speed was 5 kB/s and that Internet service in most cafés was unavailable between 10 and 20 percent of the time.
[3] In 2005, Ethiopia announced plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the next three years to connect all of the country's schools, hospitals, and government offices, and most of its rural population, to broadband Internet via satellite or fiber-optic cable.
[3] Ethiopia has made several attempts to increase available broadband by laying 4,000 kilometers of fiber-optic cable along the country's major highways, by making overtures to the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and by connecting Addis Ababa to existing fiber optic networks in Port Sudan and Djibouti.
Most notably, in July 2012 blogger Eskinder Nega was jailed on an 18-year sentence on charges of attempting to incite violence through his blog posts.
[12] In April 2014, a team of journalists and bloggers called Zone 9 were arrested under similar terrorism charges in Addis Ababa.
[13] Similarly, in July 2014, Zelalem Workagegnehu, the contributor of the Diaspora-based De Birhan Blog along with his two friends (Yonatan Wolde and Bahiru Degu), who applied for a Digital Security Course, were arrested and later charged with the Anti-Terror Proclamation.
[15] While government representatives portrayed the law as a means of protecting domestic telecommunications providers, some critics described the new draft legislation as an attempt to criminalize the use of VoIP services to punish dissent.
[12] On 22 June 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government ordered the unblocking of over 200 websites as part of reforms that also saw banned TV channels restored and several political prisoners set free.
[18][19][20] Announcing the reforms, Abiy's Chief of Staff Fitsum Arega reaffirmed freedom of expression as a "foundational right.
[21][22][23] Interpreted as a measure to prevent cheating in nationwide exams, the disruption angered business owners and incurred an estimated $17m loss to Ethiopia's GDP.
[citation needed] In December 2006, the Ethiopian Telecommunication Agency began requiring Internet cafés to log the names and addresses of individual customers, reportedly as part of an effort to track users who engaged in illegal activities online.
[31] Bloggers believe that their communications are being monitored, and the state maintains the right to shut down Internet access for resellers or customers who do not comply with security guidelines.
The availability suffers a bit: on 18 January 2019 there was a daytime blackout of the Internet (an Ethio telecom operator stated that it has been for national security reason).