Ethio Telecom working to resume full telecom services in Tigray Region

Addis Ababa, December 10 , 2020 (FBC) – Ethio  Telecom has stated today that its is working with Ethiopian electric Utility, Security Apparatus and Transitional administration of Tigray Region to address challenges and resume full telecom services in the area.

Ethio Telecom has briefed media and customers on Telecom Services Interruption in the North Region of the country.

“Telecom services have been disrupted in the North region since November 4, 2020, 00:37 AM. Following the crisis, we are receiving multiple requests from our esteemed customers and media partners for clarification on the service outage.” Ethio Telecom told the media, adding “The investigation is being undertaken by the Federal Police.”, said Ethio Telecom CEO Frehiwot Tamiru.

“Ethio Telecom has redundant routes to secure the services and matured governance in managing the incident and crises. The current crisis is unprecedented since the telecom infrastructures were damaged in all alternative routes from Mekele and Shire core sites, in addition to the commercial power blackout in the region.”, Frehiwot said.

Ethio Telecom has provided information and evidence from CCTV in the core sites and our systems to Federal Police for investigation and police will communicate the investigation result and possible legal actions to the Public, it is indicated.

“We have substantial information and evidence that external entities, other than Ethio-telecom security staffs, accessed our premises and caused service outage in the North Region.”, the CEO indicated.

“Upon receiving critical messages on service outage from the National Network Operation Center, the senior leadership and technical experts of our company immediately came to office and took several measures to secure the National Network, managed various systems manipulations by the illegal entities and exerted maximum efforts to assess infrastructure status and restore the services in the region.”, Ethio Telecom said.

Apart from telecom service disruption, massive cyberattack attempts have been made. Ethiopia telecom has prevented these massive cyber-attack attempts which are mainly denial of services and unauthorized access attempts, CEO noted.

The main targets of the cyberattack were Government Systems and Sites, Educational Systems and Sites, Ethio Telecom Systems and Infrastructures, Broadcasting Media Systems and Sites and Finance Systems and Sites, according to the CEO.

Frehiwot said that Ethio Telecom has managed to resume telecom services in the areas such as Sansha, Humera, Maykadra, Turkan, Maytsebri and Korem partially while the service has been fully recovered in Alamata.

The main challenges to service resumption are Commercial power outage, Transmission outage (OPGW and Terrestrial Fiber Optics), Staff reachability and other basic facilities required for the service, according to Ethio Telecom, Frehiwot added.