China's ZTE to boost ETC's Ethiopia mobile users

ADDIS ABABA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Ethiopia Telecommunications Corp (ETC) plans to boost mobile subscribers to 15 million in two years, from 2.2 million now, using $1.5 billion from China's ZTE Corp O763.HK, the Ethiopian firm said on Wednesday.

ZTE, China's second-largest telecoms gear maker, agreed in July to build a national network in the Horn of Africa country. It is building a $5.2 million plant in northern Ethiopia to make handsets, and industry sources say it will also set up a CDMA network with capacity for 2.4 million Ethiopian subscribers.

Abdurahim Ahmed, head of communications for ETC, said the company also planned to increase the country's number of fixed telephone lines to 4.4 million by 2010 from 1.1 million now.

Chinese telecoms gear makers such as ZTE have made strides in recent years into more mature markets, and have long been established in emerging areas such as India and Africa. (Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; Editing by Daniel Wallis)