Unlike many countries where you can cheaply buy a local SIM card and put it in your own GSM phone, Ethiopia's GSM network is controlled by the government and there is an artificial limit on the number of SIM cards in circulation, so rather than buying, you may only be able to rent a SIM card - available from a number of locations in Addis Ababa for about $10 a week, plus the cost of calls.

 If your home operator has a roaming agreement, your GSM mobile phone will work in Ethiopia. There is surprisingly good coverage.

Internet access is universally slow , and mostly still on dialup (not much broadband).  

PHONE NUMBERS

All Ethiopia numbers have 10 digits.

The international dialling code for Ethiopia from most countries is +251 

When calling from abroad to an Ethiopian number - omit the initial zero.

Addis Ababa land line numbers all start  011..... the 4th digit indicates a zone of the city eg  0112 .....  0115....  0116.....

Addis mobiles start 0911............. mobiles issued in other towns may be   0912....0913...