Submitted by Mike Grenville on Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:05

Banned since the contested elections in 2005, SMS has at last been turned back on in Ethiopia in time for Ethiopia's new millennium.

The Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation, the sole telecommunication service provider in Ethiopia, has re-started SMS on 14th September.

During the elections in May 2005, Kinijit used text messaging to communicate with its supporters. The election result was contested and in response to Kinijit's effective use of SMS in mobilising its supporters, the government closed down parts of the press, blocked acess to web sites and shut down SMS on 10th June 2005.

To announce the restoration of the service, an SMS was sent to all mobile phone users in the country saying:

"[Wishing] you [a] happy Ethiopian Millennium. And now the SMS service is launched,"

Ethiopia follows a unique, slightly modified version of the Julian calendar and ushered in the 21st century on on 12th September, seven years after the rest of the world. This BBC article explains Why Ethiopia's Millennium is seven years late.

At the same time Nokia has launched a set of Amharic-based mobile phones. The phones Nokia launched are the 1200, 1208, 1650, 2630 and 2760. The Nokia 1200 and 1208 come with a seamless keypad that protects the phone from dust, a useful feature rural mobile phone use. Some models also come with five available phonebooks so it is possible for an entire family to share a phone.