ADDIS ABABA -- The state-owned Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) and ZTE, a Chinese telecom company, on Saturday signed a 1.39 billion birr (US$158 million) agreement on three telecom service expansion projects.

The agreement includes the first phase of fiber transmission backbone, expansion of mobile phone service for the Ethiopian millennium as well as expansion of wireless telephone service.

According to the agreement, some 1.2 million mobile telephone lines will be provided to subscribers in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa and eight other towns in connection with the upcoming Ethiopian millennium celebration.

Moreover, the first phase of the wireless telephone expansion project with the capacity of 652,000 telephone lines will be also executed.

Upon completion, the projects will enable the corporation to provide standardized and quality telecom service to its customers.

The projects will increase the number of fixed and mobile telephone service subscribers to over 14 million.

ETC has designed and put in place a five-year strategic plan with a view to improving quality and coverage of telecom service across the country.