By Omer Redi, Addis Fortune

ADDIS ABABA — The state telecom monopoly, Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC), has suspended internet services in seven towns of the Oromia, Amhara and Harari regional states, as well as in Dire Dawa town.

The towns that have had internet services temporarily suspended as of July due to over subscriptions are Shashemene, Nekempte, Jimma and Adama (Nazareth) of Oromia, Dessie and Gondar of Amhara, Harar of Harari Regional State, and the entire Dire Dawa town.

A letter that Abnet Asrat, temporary general manager of Broadband Strategic Business Unit (SBU) wrote to Amare Amsalu, chief executive officer (CEO) of ETC and copied to other offices, requested the approval of the suspension of internet services to these areas. The reasons cited for the suspension are over subscription and a jammed bandwidth.

ETC has a maximum of 16 megabytes per second (mbps) link between Addis Abeba and the respective towns of Shashemene, Dessie, Dire Dawa and Adama. Harar and Gondar share the link from Dire Dawa and Bahir Dar, respectively, according to Abdurahim Ahmed, ETC corporate communication division manager.

The reason behind the selection of the mentioned towns over others is that the corporation has already reached the bandwidth limit in those towns. The recent subscription trend and feature in the towns indicate that the total average for internet and data services for three months have shown monthly subscriptions revenue of approximately less than one million Birr.

Thus, ETC will lose close to one million Birr in revenue each month till the end of the suspension, when the towns are back connected to the world. The resumption of the services requires upgrading of the transmission link between Addis Abeba and the regional towns. An ongoing expansion project that is expected to lead to the recommencement of Internet services in the eight towns, would cost more than 916,000 dollars, Abdurahim told Fortune.

The eight towns, half of which are from Oromia, including its capital, will remain disconnected for at least three months till the ongoing internet optimization project Sisco is finalized.

“It is estimated to last for twelve weeks, as per the Sisco company’s plan,” ETC states.

Amhara Regional State has the second highest number of the towns affected. Dessie and Gondar, where people, unaware of the latest move by ETC, will also have to experience the exasperation of seeing, “The page cannot be displayed” dialogue box on their computer screens.

Ethiopia is one of the countries where internet connectivity has not always been reliable, in sharp contrast to the high speed broadband link in developed countries where surfing the web, uploading and downloading are pleasant experiences.