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Mobile phone breakthrough for Ethiopia
Nokia has taken advantage of the lifting of a ban on text messages in Ethiopia to start selling mobile phones to the African country. The nation is seven years behind the western calendar – the Ethiopian year 2000 was celebrated last September - and it is even more behind so-called more developed countries in terms of technology. Ethiopia does have a history of text messaging – a history that, during the bloody election protests of 2005, came to an abrupt halt when the service mysteriously stopped without explanation. Now texts are back, but Ethiopians, who are just as fond as their devices as any other nation, prefer to talk than text – and this time the reason has nothing to do with politics. The Geez alphabet, on which the Ethiopian language is based, has 300 characters, compared to the western alphabet's 26 letters. This means that developing a keyboard for Ethiopian text messages was considered an impossible task. But Nokia has somehow managed it, the BBC reports, and hopes to reap the rewards in a mobile marketplace previously impenetrable to western companies. According to a recent report from the World Bank, Ethiopia has only 5.8 mobile phones per 1,000 people - sadly it has 8.6 landlines per 1,000 people. Industry News News posted on 13/12/2007 12:23:59 CommentsReply Good NokiaI really appreciate what Nokia is trying to do. I am sure all Ethiopians will be happy if they find a mobile with their languge.Thanks Nokia. Comment posted by Anonymous on 13/12/2007 18:07:50 Reply BrooksGe'ez has any consonant from letter HA-PPE, when(-)/(|)/(o) is added. We have seven vowels for each consonant, HU(-),HE(|-)** HO(o), etc.Comment posted by Anonymous on 13/12/2007 19:07:31 Reply AmharicAlthough there are 300 characters, there are really like 30 letters. It's the addition of vowels that makes it seem like there are more words.So in Amharic: Ba is one letter, so is Bo, Be, Bu, and so on. So if someone wanted to write the letter Bu (one letter in Amharic) - they could just type B and then u which would give them that letter :) Comment posted by Anonymous on 13/12/2007 20:15:40 Reply From Ethiopia!Mobile phone users in Ethiopia are increasing fast. I think you should put that clearly, instead of making people feel sad for the few phones we had.Comment posted by Anonymous on 14/12/2007 03:24:00 Reply CorrectionTo those people who mistakenly call the Ethiopian alphabet Amharic - it is not correct. It is Ge'ez. Perhaps it is better if we call it Tigrigna because it is much closer. Thank you. Nokia: good job.Comment posted by A.G. on 16/12/2007 00:27:06 Reply Wow, From The Home Holy Land!Great for Nokia, yeah, this is it. Ethiopia is again demanding more advanced technology. Thanks. That greatest nation with the greatest leader, oh yeah Meles, The Leader of Leaders. We expect more from ICT than agriculture, floriculture and ICT are going parallel.See you Men! Comment posted by Anonymous on 16/12/2007 07:04:41 Reply Cheap contract dealsFor these people, mobile phone contracts become useful because these contract deals make every demanding mobile phone cheaper. These deals are available on most mobile phone networks.Comment posted by Anonymous on 07/06/2008 07:48:00 Have your say!Camera phone war hots up
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