Ethio Telecom Closed to Sign Network Upgrade Contract with Chinese Vendors:

Ethiopia's state-owned monopoly telco, Ethio Telecom is reportedly close to signing a major network upgrade contract with either ZTE or Huawei.

The company first revealed that it was in talks with unnamed bidders for a network upgrade contract last December. It was also announced at the time that the contract would include LTE coverage in the capital city, and HSPA+ in the big cities by 2015.

It was also recently reported that the contract would include the stripping out of decade old Nokia supplied equipment in the capital city.

"We are now poised to start the expansion. We are almost on the final stage on dealing with  ZTE and Huawei," Debretsion Gebremichael, Ethiopia's deputy prime minister and minister of communications and technology told the Reuters news agency.

"In a few weeks we will conclude the agreement and we will start the expansion," he added.

Abdurahim Ahmed, head of Public Relations with Ethio Telecom has previously said that the company aims to double its subscriber base to 40 million as part of the network upgrades.