Communications in Somalia

The following is an outline of communications technology in Somalia.

Overview

Somalia has some of the best telecommunications in Africa: a handful of companies are ready to wire home or office and provide crystal-clear service, including international long distance, for about $10 a month."^[1] This may seem rather unexpected in a country engaged in civil war; the public telecommunications system was destroyed or dismantled at the outset of the civil war by different factions. Abdullahi Mohammed Hussein of Telecom Somalia explained this by stating that "the government post and telecoms company used to have a monopoly but after the regime was toppled, we were free to set up our own business",^[2] The Economist cited the telephone industry in anarchic Somalia as "a vivid illustration of the way in which governments…can often be more of a hindrance than a help."^[3] The same article also noted that in Somalia protection money must be paid to both warlords and security agents, and that viewed closer up the quasi-country "....better resembles an armed oligarchy, capable of taking anything it wants at the point of a gun—even a Nokia handset."^[3]

Telephone

There are around 100,000 (2004) main line telephones in use, but as of 2007 734,800 mobile phones.^[4]

The World Bank reported in 2007 that only about 1.5% of the population had a telephone^[5] resulting in the emergence of ten fiercely competitive telephone companies.^[6] According to the CIA World Factbook, private telephone companies "offer service in most major cities" via wireless technology, charging "the lowest international rates on the continent",^[7]

Somalia has the cheapest cellular calling rates on the continent, with some companies charging less than a cent per minute.^[8] Competing phone companies have agreed on interconnection standards, which were brokered by the United Nations funded Somali Telecom Association. Installation time for a land-line is just three days, while in neighboring Kenya waiting lists are many years long.^[9]

Companies providing telecommunication services are:

DALKOM Telecom carrier & Capacity provider Somalia Golis Telecom Somalia Somali Telecom Group Galkom Global Internet Company Hormuud

Telcom OnkoTel NationLink Telecom Netco Somafone Telcom Puntland Telenet International Telesom Company

Mail

The New York Times has noted the private provision of mail services.^[10]

Radio and television

• Radios: 470,000 (1997)
• Televisions: 135,000 (1997)

Radio broadcast stations (2005)

• AM 0
• FM 11
• shortwave:
  • 1 in Mogadishu
  • 2 FM in Galguduud
  • 2 FM in Puntland
  • 2 FM in Somaliland

Six television broadcast stations are active, of which two are in Mogadishu, two in Hargeisa and two in Boosaaso (2001).

Internet

Four Internet Service Providers (ISPs), one each in Boosaaso and Hargeisa, and two in Mogadishu (2004), offer internet access to some 100,000 users (2008), up from just 200 in 2000.^[11]

Both wireless service and Internet cafés are available. Somalia was the last country in Africa to access the Internet in August 2000, with only 57 web sites known as of 2003.^[12] The country code top-level domain .so, allocated to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia in 2009, sees very little use.

References

1. ^ Sites, Kevin (2007). In the Hot Zone. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 9780061228759. 
2. ^ Winter, Joseph (2004-11-19). "Telecoms thriving in lawless Somalia". BBC News Africa (British Broadcasting Corporation). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4020259.stm. Retrieved 2007-10-03. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Somalia calling: An unlikely success story. http://www.awdalnews.com/wmview.php?ArtID=6661. 
4. ^ http://www.wcisdata.com
5. ^ Nenova, Tatiana; Harford, Tim (November 2004). "Anarchy and Invention". Public Policy for the Private Sector (280). http://rru.worldbank.org/Documents/PapersLinks/280-nenova-harford.pdf. Retrieved 2008-03-10. 
6. ^ Cockburn, Andrew (July 2002). "Somali". National Geographic. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0207/feature3/fulltext.html. Retrieved 2008-01-13. 
7. ^ "Somalia". CIA World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/so.html. Retrieved 2007-10-01. 
8. ^ Winter, Joseph (2004-11-19). "Telecoms thriving in lawless Somalia". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4020259.stm. Retrieved 2007-01-02. 
9. ^ Benjamin Powell, Ryan Ford, Alex Nowrasteh (November 30, 2006). "Somalia After State Collapse: Chaos or Improvement?". http://www.independent.org/pdf/working_papers/64_somalia.pdf. 
10. ^ Gettleman, Jeffrey (2007-04-27). "In Somalia, Those Who Feed Off Anarchy Fuel It". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/world/africa/25somalia.html. Retrieved 2008-01-13. 
11. ^ Internet Usage Statistics for Africa
12. ^ Landreville, Kristen (November 28, 2003). "Journalists online in Somalia". World Watch. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. http://web.archive.org/web/20070929031836/http://www.kristenlandreville.com/2003_11_01_world-watch_archive.html. Retrieved 2007-01-02.