Ethio Telecom Reports Record Revenue Growth, Tops 90 Million Customers

Ethio Telecom  has reported strong financial and operational performance for the 2025/26 fiscal year, generating ETB 215.82 billion in revenue, up 33.2% year over year and achieving 99.7% of its annual target. The state-owned operator also expanded its customer base to 90.12 million, surpassing its annual target and reinforcing its transition from a traditional telecom operator into a technology company under its “Next Horizon: Digital & Beyond 2028” strategy.

The company reported EBITDA of ETB 38.7 billion, a 51.9% increase from the previous year, while operating profit rose 47.5% to ETB 30 billion, supported by stronger cost management and operational efficiency. Through its Do2Save initiative, Ethio Telecom generated ETB 14.61 billion in efficiency gains during the fiscal year.

Mobile and digital services continued to drive growth. Total customers reached 90.12 million, while active mobile subscribers increased to 72.09 million. Mobile data users grew 10.7% to 51.53 million, and fixed broadband subscriptions reached one million, representing 18% annual growth. Data and internet services accounted for 31.1% of total revenue, overtaking mobile voice as the company’s largest revenue contributor, highlighting accelerating digital adoption in Ethiopia.

Network investments remained a key focus throughout the year. Ethio Telecom deployed 603 new mobile sites, expanding its total network to 10,613 sites and increasing overall network capacity to 115.1 million. The operator extended 4G coverage to 1,200 towns, raising population coverage to 82.23%, while expanding 5G services to 33 cities with 340 operational 5G sites.

The company also strengthened its fixed and transport infrastructure by deploying 793 kilometers of new backbone fiber, expanding its metro network by 1,275 kilometers, and connecting 841 additional mobile sites with fiber, bringing the total number of fiber-connected sites to 3,279. Internet capacity increased to 4.3 Tb/s following the addition of 1.8 Tb/s during the year.

Ethio Telecom continued expanding its cloud and enterprise capabilities, launching more than 20 new cloud-enabled enterprise services and increasing its Tier III-certified data center capacity to 5 MW across six facilities. The company said its Intelligent Operations Center detected and mitigated more than 242,000 cybersecurity incidents during the fiscal year while maintaining 99.99% uptime for critical systems.

Its mobile money platform, telebirr, also recorded significant growth. The platform reached 60.6 million customers, processed 2.61 billion transactions worth ETB 4.19 trillion during the year, and expanded its ecosystem to more than 410,700 agents and 440,100 merchants. Telebirr also disbursed ETB 19.51 billion in collateral-free digital loans and accumulated ETB 18.75 billion in digital savings.

Beyond telecommunications, Ethio Telecom strengthened Ethiopia’s digital public infrastructure by registering nearly 32 million citizens for the National Digital ID program, accounting for 69% of the country’s total National ID registrations. During the fiscal year alone, the company registered more than 20 million citizens and generated over 17 million Foundational Identification Numbers (FINs).

Internationally, Ethio Telecom generated USD 188.48 million in foreign currency, while advancing regional digital infrastructure projects, including the Horizon Fiber initiative linking Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia.

The company also marked a major capital markets milestone by becoming the inaugural listing on the Ethiopian Securities Exchange. Since secondary market trading began on May 26, 2026, its share price increased from ETB 300 to ETB 852, representing a 184% gain.