The following information is about the phone and internet communications that are available in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the cost of these services.
Telephone Service
International telephone service in Ethiopia is quite expensive compared to many other countries. Telephone calling cards do not work here and none are issued in Ethiopia. Calling from Addis Ababa to other countries require using the Ethiopian international direct dialing rates.
It is possible to obtain calling cards, issued outside the country for calling into Ethiopia, but the rates, about 35 cents a minute, are more expensive than the calling cards for many other countries. However, this is much cheaper than calling from Ethiopia. Not all calling card providers provide calling cards for Ethiopia.
Mobile Phones
Most out-of-country cellular phone services will not work in Addis Ababa. However, it is possible to obtain mobile phone service here. If you have an unlocked cell phone that uses a SIM card, you can replace the SIM card with one from Ethiopia.
We bought an Ethiopian SIM card from a cell phone shop at the Addis Ababa Hilton Hotel and installed it in our unlocked cell phone. The SIM card cost us 368 BIRR ($38 USD) and we had to fill out a one-page application form and provide a copy of my passport. We also paid 100 BIRR ($10.40 USD) for additional air time (this is a prepaid service). The shop lady told us that local calls were .75 BIRR ($.08 USD) per minute, and international calls were 13 BIRR ($1.35 USD) per minute. The local calls worked on our cell phone instantly, but it took a couple of days before we were able to call internationally. We were not able to get the text messaging service to work yet, but other people here with cell phones can text message OK. We were advised by friends that the phone settings may need to be corrected.
If you do not have an unlocked cell phone that uses a SIM card, you may have to buy a cell phone in Addis Ababa. The prices of the Nokia cell phones sold at the cell phone shop range from 750 BIRR ($78 USD) to 3,000 BIRR ($312 USD).
Internet
Internet service in Ethiopia is slow and expensive compared to most other countries. The major hotels have broadband internet service but it does slow down to a crawl during periods of high internet usage.
Houses in Addis Ababa that have internet access use mostly dial-up service. Broadband access is expensive and takes about one year to get it installed. The following are the internet prices.
Type of Service Initial Price Monthly Price
64Kbs ADSL 4,608 BIRR 1,986 BIRR
128Kbs ADSL 7,533 BIRR 3,140 BIRR
256Kbs ADSL 13,925 BIRR 6,096 BIRR
512Kbs ADSL 26,708 BIRR 12,008 BIRR
1Mb ADSL 52,274 BIRR 23,832 BIRR
2Mb ADSL 103,406 BIRR 41,479 BIRR
Dial-UP 156 BIRR 60 BIRR
(Presently 9.6 BIRR = $1 USD)
The above ADSL prices are with leased lines. Shared DSL is not available yet.
Dial-Up monthly price includes 900 minutes free service. Over 900 minutes cost 0.04 BIRR per minute, except on working days from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm which is 0.07 BIRR per minute.
Source: Danmarie
Internet phone services such as Skype are illegal to use in Ethiopia and the Skype website is blocked.
Internet Cafe’s are popular in Addis Ababa and several have 128Kbs broadband service.