BY DARGIE KAHSAY
The 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC) was held from February 27 to March 2 in Barcelona, Spain with a focus on Fin Tech, financial technology. Over 780 mobile operators from across the world had attended the MWC in Barcelona from around 202 countries of the world. Over 88 thousand people had reportedly attended the annual mobile congress organized by England based organization, Global System for Mobile Association.
The congress that gathered world mobile operators in to one place is prepared annually since 1987 this year’s annual congress was prepared in Barcelona with due focuses on velocity, in financial technology and unleashing next technologies. The annual mobile event is a place to promote new and emerging technologies in the sector and a place to create connections between mobile operators to share their experiences and to promote new markets for new technologies.
Ethio Telecom, the Ethiopian telecom provider did participate in the 2023 annual MWC in Barcelona and shared its experiences especially in promoting digital financing, Tele Birr. Ethio Telecom launched Tele Birr in mid-2021 and currently it has over 29 million subscribers within less than two years. During the congress, Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA) appointed board members and Ethio Telecom was elected as board member.
According to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ethio Telecom, Firehiwot Tamiru, though started recently, almost in less than two years, the development of Tele Birr is fascinating and very fast. “Ethio Telecom presented and shared its experience on mobile financial technology at the congress in Barcelona as it scored remarkable achievement within a short period of time with its Tele Birr application,” the CEO stated.
Speaking to local media, Firehiwot stated that the Barcelona mobile congress was successful and Ethio Telecom shared its experience in the sector in addition to learning additional experiences from different operators in the mobile technology. As to her, Ethiopia sets Digital Ethiopia 2025 to accelerate digitalization and to realize full digital sector in Ethiopia by 2025 and becoming a board member as the association would help the telecom operator to develop its service by learning additional experiences and to develop its connection with other global operators in the sector.
“Ethio Telecom is the first telecom operating company in Africa which provides service for 129 years; Firehiwot said adding that currently Ethio Telecom is a fast-growing company in the sector and introducing new technologies to become competitive. Becoming a board member at the association would help Ethio Telecom to accelerate its services, as to her.
“By promoting Fin Tech, Ethio Telecom is digitalizing services, easing market transactions and other digital services in the market and in other service providing sectors,” the CEO stated adding that “Ethio Telecom is working to create cash less society by promoting digital financing through financial technologies. Ethio Telecom is the second biggest telecom operating company in Africa and 22nd from 781 telecom operating companies in the world and its service is growing dramatically.”
As to Firehiwot, Ethio Telecom’s contribution to the development of Fine Tech in Ethiopia is immense. “Though we started financial service at Ethio Telecom lately, the 2021 launched mobile finance, Tele Birr is expanding across the country within short period and currently it has over 29 million customers. It is a dramatic development and we are working on that to expand the service,” Firehiwot added. Becoming board membership at Global System for Mobile Association would help us to further take experiences to introduce new technological innovations in the sector, she stated.
“Our next journey is to accelerate digitalization so as to ease and make accessible services and financial transactions in Ethiopia. The motto of our three years development strategy is ‘beyond connectivity’ as we want to give due focus to the digitalization in addition to focusing on expanding traditional mobile connectivity. Our focus is realizing full financial technology in Ethiopia and digitalizing government services in the health, agriculture, education and other sectors to provide easily accessible and modernized service” Firehiwot stated.
As to her, mobile technology is easing services through digitalizing the services and digitalization is facilitating economic development. Meanwhile, a press statement in connection with the Barcelona Mobile Congress sent by Huawei Ethiopia Office to The Ethiopian Herald stated that industry cooperation is necessary to accelerate 5G prosperity globally with nonstop innovation. The 5G internet technology, entered to commercial use three years ago, is rapidly developed and accelerating commercial transactions, mainly in the financial industry.
As to Huawei Carrier BG President Li Peng, according to the press statement, to achieve greater 5G success, it is important to reimagining 5G businesses, reinforcing 5G coverage, and reinventing 5G technologies in the industry. He also underlined the necessity of working together to accelerate 5G prosperity globally. “5G coverage is still unbalanced among different regions and countries of the world,” noted Li.
In another press release by Huawei, Ethiopia stated that stronger information communication technology and digital economy are vital for an intelligent world. Huawei meet with operators, industry partners and other opinion leaders from around the world to discuss “GUIDE to the Intelligent World” to lay the foundation for 5.5G and build on the success of 5G for even greater prosperity in an intelligent world.
According to Huawei, an era fueled by the digital economy and defined by collaboration of stakeholders in the industry would create more vibrant development and fuller of unlimited possibilities.
“At the event [in Barcelona], Huawei is also showcasing its latest products and solutions that deliver ultimate 5G experiences, premium and intelligent ultra-broadband connectivity, digital and intelligent transformation, and their Green 1-2-3 solution. Huawei’s offerings show a clear commitment to innovating for the 5.5G era, creating value for customers, and stimulating the digital economy,” the statement from Huawei further noted.
According to Huawei, users of 5G network are growing and the technology accelerating global commercial success. “By the end of 2022, 5G had already proven to be a global commercial success, with over a billion mobile users connecting with 5G”, it stated adding Huawei has played an important part in 5G network construction in all of the top 10 cities among the world’s 40 representative 5G-enabled cities.
Continuous and robust investment in the information communication technology (ICT) infrastructure directly helps for the growth of the digital economy and this would accelerate development in the world. As to Huawei the world is stepping towards the 5.5G era that was proposed in July 2022.
Looking towards the future, Huwaei noted, it is believed that the GUIDE business blueprint that combines both 5G and 5.5G clearly lays out how ICT evolution will progress and bring about greater value. Together with customers and partners, continuing to innovation, building intelligent connectivity and redefining computing will continue in the sector and the collaboration on innovation will create even greater value for the ICT industry and make the industry as a whole more resilient and prosperous, it added.
The telecom industry is continuing to introduce new technological innovations and the new technological innovations are accelerating digitalization. In the digitalized world, services and commercial transactions are becoming easy and accessible. In addition to making communication easy across the world, the newly innovating technological innovations in the sector are facilitating economic development by making financial transaction and commercial activities easily accessible. Considering the fast growing of the telecommunication services, Telecom operators across the world are working to introduce new and easy services to become competent in the sector.
The Ethiopian Herald March 17/2023
