Ethiopia's state-owned telecommunications operator, Ethio Telecom, has expanded a range of sustainability measures.

The company announced plans to plant a further 250,000 tree seedlings as part of the eighth edition of its Green Legacy program, which forms part of Ethiopia's national reforestation initiative. The company said that more than 3,500 employees and partners participated in simultaneous planting events across Addis Ababa and the operator's 18 regional offices.

Ethio Telecom has claimed to have planted more than 4.6 million trees across Ethiopia over the past seven years, with an average reported survival rate of 82.7 percent. The latest campaign is expected to create around 2,000 temporary jobs related to seedling production, planting, and maintenance.

Alongside the reforestation campaign, Ethio Telecom also reported continued investment in renewable energy to reduce diesel consumption across its telecommunications network.

The operator said it has deployed 190 fully solar-powered telecom sites, 867 hybrid solar and battery systems, and 1,114 lithium-ion battery installations nationwide. According to the company, the upgrades have reduced diesel generator operating time by up to 40 percent.

In the most recent financial year, Ethio Telecom said that it had commissioned 215 solar-powered sites and upgraded 774 existing network locations, adding 12.72MW of renewable generation capacity. The company said its installed solar capacity now totals 39.72MW.

The investments reflect a wider trend across Africa's telecommunications sector, where operators are increasingly deploying on-site renewable energy to reduce operating costs and improve resilience in areas with unreliable grid connections. Ethio Telecom has previously partnered with Huawei on the colocation of solar at tower sites across the country, completing the first batch of deployments last year. Other examples include South Africa and Nigeria.

Ethio Telecom is the largest telco provider in the country. As of January 2026, the company said that it has 87.1 million customers.