The Chinese telecom manufacturer ZTE has signed a USD400 million agreement with the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation to provide 15 million wireless mobile networks in Ethiopia.

With this agreement, ZTE will help Ethiopia to expand its telecommunication infrastructure and build wireless networks in the country over the next four to five years. On the completion of this agreement, the mobile phone coverage in Ethiopia will increase to 64% and the wireless telephone coverage will increase to 90%.

In the next two years, ZTE will distribute 900,000 wireless telephone networks in Ethiopia's urban and rural areas. Currently, the number of mobile phone users in Ethiopia is about 3.5 million, out of its estimated 80 million population.

In recent years, Chinese telecom manufacturers such as ZTE and Huawei not only enter the mature markets, but also attain good development in these emerging African markets. Not long ago, ZTE gained a USD400 million GSM contract in India.