Communications in Somalia

Communications In Somalia

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." 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", 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." 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."