'SMSing' restored in Ethiopia

According to media reports and bloggers from Addis Ababa, the 'texting' service was disabled on 10 June 2005 after an opposition party resorted to using SMSes as a campaign tool to reach voters.

The two-year ban was lifted by the government as part of celebrations of the Ethiopian Millennium celebrated in September. Ethiopia follows an orthodox calendar called the Ge'ez calendar, which is seven years behind the Gregorian one. The current year according to the Ethiopian calendar is 2000. There were millennium celebrations when the New Year began in Ethiopia at midnight Ethiopian Time on 12 September.

Coinciding with the Millennium celebrations was the launch of Nokia's first handsets to feature Amharic - the official working language of Ethiopia and the second most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic.

The launch event, held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, also marked Nokia's first official release of a new product in Ethiopia and also unveiled its authorised local Nokia distributor, Glorious PLC.

The new products announced at the event are the Nokia 1200, 1208, 1650, 2630 and 2760, which all have industry-leading features and applications specifically designed for markets such as Ethiopia.

A Nokia representative is quoted as saying that the launch of Amharic-based devices in Ethiopia, follows a successful launch of Nokia handsets in local languages in countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Mozambique.

Going by commentaries appearing on Ethiopian bloggers websites, the move to restore the SMS service has been well received by the public with many commentators recognising that such a ban was an infringement on freedom of speech and expression which should not be allowed in a modern democratic country.

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