Nifty shortcuts for your Ethio Telecom prepaid mobile phone

Ethio Telecom recently sent out a nicely worded mass message to all its subscribers. It talked about how you no longer have to choose between the green and blue recharge cards and ended with a line that has given me many smiles:

It is all the same.

Smiles aside, the fact is that you can’t accidentally buy the wrong card anymore. This announcement also means that every SIM card now allows access to the Net.

It also means that all those handy shortcuts that the green card folks have enjoyed for the past couple of months are now freely available to all.

What shortcuts? I hear the ex-blue-card folks ask. I won’t keep you in the dark for long.

Here they are:

1. How to recharge your Ethio Telecom mobile

Once upon a time in a land not too far away, when one wanted to top up one’s mobile phone, one had to dial a 3-digit number, listen to a (sometimes Chinese) voice, follow instructions and more often that not, enter the scratch-card code numerous times before the process worked and credit was credited to aforementioned one’s account.

No more.

Now all you have to do is dial this:

*805*secret_code_on_scratch_card# 

2. How to check your Ethio Telecom mobile balance

Just like recharging your phone was once a royal pain, checking your mobile balance was also a time-consuming process. It too involved dialling a 3-digit number and following instructions.

Today you only have to enter 5 characters and dial:

*804# 

3. How to send credit to another Ethio Telecom phone

This is a new feature that is pretty handy. If you have over 5.35 Birr worth of credit in your account, you can send some of this credit to another Ethio Telecom subscriber. There are a couple of points to remember:

1. You have to send a minimum of 5 Birr.
2. You will be charged 35c for the service.

If you’re still sure you want to send some of your credit to someone, here’s what to do:

*806*number_of_lucky_bum*amount_of_money# 

Pretty handy, this trick. You can also send your money to a CDMA number if you are so inclined.

If you’re dying to try your hand at sending money or if you’re just plain generous or if you have more credit than you could possibly need, let me try some blatant subliminal messaging:

1. To send money to David’s mobile phone dial:
   

   *806*0924311836*amount_of_money# 

2. To send money to David’s CDMA dial:
   

   *806*0958001330*amount_of_money# 

And that is the end of this (hopefully) useful post! Let me know if you have any questions or if any of these instructions are not clear.

Related posts:

1. Ethio Telecom’s new Alcatel mobile phone package
2. How to set up your Huawei EVDO or CDMA modem for Ethio Telecom
3. One simple step to get internet access on your mobile phone in Ethiopia.
4. Six reasons why a CDMA mobile broadband internet connection is a good choice in Ethiopia

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