Beyond state vanguardism and market fundamentalism: a case for telecommunications commons in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Despite external and domestic pressures seeking liberalization and privatization, Ethiopia, until recently, maintained a highly centralized, vertically integrated, single service provider model of state monopoly of telecommunications. However, in 2019, the Ethiopian House of Representatives passed the Communications Service Proclamation, a historic bill that deregulated the Ethiopian telecommunications sector, paving the way for domestic and foreign companies to invest in one of the last remaining state-controlled telecommunications markets in the world. By probing the limitations of Ethiopia’s monopolistic arrangement in telecommunications akin to state vanguardism as well as critically examining the potential pitfalls of the impending liberalization of the sector and privatization of the sole telecommunication operator Ethio-Telecom, this article makes the case for instituting a commons-based approach that is pro-poor, pro-development, and contextually streamlined. It concludes by proposing three avenues of telecommunication commons, namely: infrastructure commons; last mile commons; and digital commons.