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Somalia

Somalia's First ISP opens for business

Against all the odds, the first ISP has opened for business in Somalia, bringing one of the few remaining unwired African countries online. Only two countries are now technically without access, Eritrea and Congo-Brazzaville.

The ISP will serve the capital city of Mogadishu and Borama in addition to Hargeisa, the capital of the neighbouring Somaliland.

The number of consumers the provider will serve, however, is minimal. At present, the company has just over thirty customers in Mogadishu and expects to serve just 100 people across the country.

The cost of access is largely prohibitive. The installation fee alone at USD 120 is the equivalent of the monthly income of many Somali families. The monthly line rental cost is set at USD 30 while it costs USD 0.75 per miniute to surf the NET.

Source: NUA Internet Surveys, October 4th 1999, volume 4. no. 39

Internet host sites: na

Internet subscribers (1999)

• Total: na
• Internet subscribers per 10,000 inhabitants: na

Internet Users (1999)

• Total: 200
• Users per 10,000 inhabitants: 0.21

Internet use by categories:

• Commercial:
• Academic:
• Research:
• NGO/UN/International:
• Government:
• Others:

Internet bandwidth (Kbps): na

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