February 15, 2006
Ethiopia does have SMS
According to Mathaba.net, reporting on a meeting of Tony Blair and Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi , "Ethiopia is the only country in the world of significant population (67 million) where there is not even a text messaging system in place".
Not true by my books and just shows how you can't believe everything you read. Ethiopians used text messaging in an election campaign last May and one of the world's oldest living alphabets - from Ethiopia - could be about to make its debut on a mobile phone, if a group of Ethiopian academics gets its way.
Not really related, but just what comes to mind, from what I've read, Myanmar (Southeastern Asia between Bangladesh and Thailand) has the lowest cell phone penetration rate. The country is strictly controlled by the military government, and cell phones remain the exclusive preserve of the wealthy and well-connected. There are fewer than 200,000 cell phones in use in a country of 42 million people.
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2006/02/011554.htm
