Despite continuing unrest, Somalia has taken the first tentative
steps towards establishing a national government and AU peacekeepers
have begun to arrive. It's too early to say whether some sort of
peace will take hold but behind the seemingly endless news of civil
war, the Internet has been developing apace.

Somalia was one of the last African countries to get connected to the
Internet after the country established its first ISP in 1999. But
today the country has internet connectivity to almost 53% of the
whole area of the country and the Internet business is mushrooming in
the country and becoming one of the fastest growing services along
with telephony.

Based on the 2006 report of Somali Telecommunication Association
(STA), a watchdog organisation that oversees the Policy development
and regulatory framework of ICT sector in Somalia, by the end of
2005 there were more than 0.5 million users of Internet services in
the country with 22 established ISP and 234 cyber cafes with growth
of 15.6% per year.

Several types of Internet services are available in the country
including dial up services that are mainly provided by the major
network operators in the country. The major players include Global
Internet Company which is a jointly owned by the three major networks
of Hormud Telcom, Telcom Somalia and Nationlink. Global Internet
Company is the biggest ISP in the country and the sole provider of
dialup services in South- central regions of the country. While in
Somaliland and Puntland, Internet services has been bundled within
the network products and services whereby each network delivers
Internet dialup services into its own subscribers. Major regional
service leaders include Telsom, and Ts in Somaliland regions and
Golis and STG in the Puntland region.

Dial up internet services in Somalia is the fastest growing internet
services in Africa as Somalia enjoys landline growth of more than
12.5% per year compared to Horn and eastern Africa countries where
landline is experiencing a serious decline due vandalism and increase
cost of copper cables in the international market. This growth is
attributed to the unique services policy adopted by the Somali telcom
operators that is based on free local calls within each town of in
the country. Landline has become the product of choice and most
affordable telecommunication service in the local market. By just
paying a flat rate of US$ 10 per month for unlimited calls and
US0.005 per minute for Internet connections, with one time connection
fee of US$50.

The other high-flying Internet service in the country is Wireless
Internet for corporate, learning institutions, UN, NGO and diplomatic
Missions. This service is provided by both dial up and non-dial up
ISPs. Major cities like Mogadishu, Hargeisa, Bosaso, Kismayo and
Galkayo, the services has been delivered at the pricing structure
ranging from US$ 150- 300 per month for unlimited internet access
with bandwidth rate of 64kbs up and down.

For instance, the capital city Mogadishu hosts the biggest wireless
internet services and has largest subscriber base in the country and
Dalkom (Wanaag HK), webtel, Orbit, and Unitel are the major leaders
of service providers. The challenges facing the wireless internet
providers include the cost of subscriber terminal equipment and
electricity supply as well the cost of bandwidth.

Somafone, one of the GSM services providers, has also introduced a
GPRS service for wireless Internet in the market. GPRS service has
not yet picked up in the local market but it is available in
Mogadishu and its neighbourhood regions of Lower and Middle Shabelle.

ADSL and LRE( long range ethernet) Internet services are also offered
in Mogadishu, specially for the business centres and corporate
institutions in the city. The services has not been extended to other
major cities in the country but expected to be completed in the near
future. So far Global internet is the only operator at the moment
able to provide ADSL services in Mogadishu.

In the last quarter of 2006, Dalkom Somalia came up with a programme
extending ADSL services throughout the country by providing ADSL
equipments to all network operators in the country with a revenue
sharing business model, after realising a great shift of Internet
connectivity and the huge demand for broadband services in the
market. Most of the operators are studying this proposal and expected
to be endorsed by this year. It hopes this will help the operators to
improve internet usage, increase the subscriber base and connectivity
of internet in the country. Dalkom Somalia says it has technical and
resources capacity to roll out countrywide ADSL services in
collaboration with all the networks in the country.

The cost of ADSL services in country, believed to be the cheapest in
the sub-region. For instant, the cost of the terminals plus the
installation is about US$100 while the rate of services is determined
by the number of computers that to be connected. For example ADSL
services connected to one computer costs US$30 per month for
unlimited Internet access and unlimited downloads.

Internet over the satellite services is also offered in the country
especially in the remote areas and the cities that have no either
dialup or wireless Internet services. Major clients include UN, NGOs,
financial institutions particularly the remittance companies and
Internet Cafes. Currently over three hundred satellite terminals,
connected to various teleports in Europe and Asia are available
throughout the country. This type of services have shown a stable
growth of 10-15% per year.

But the more the broadband wireless Internet increases throughout the
country, the less there will be a need for satellite Internet.
Therefore the market for satellite Internet has gone down in the past
three years in the urban areas of Somalia while this type of services
picked up in the rural areas and the demand has been steadily growing
up. The Educational centres, media companies and financial
institutions have been contributing to the growth of the demand of
Internet over the satellite services as these institutions are
pushing the extension of services into the remote areas of the
country, in order to be able to operate in rural areas.

The biggest challenge for Internet services in Somalia is the cost of
bandwidth as most of the customers are currently paying between US$
2500-3000 per Mbs per month. The Major international bandwidth
providers include TAIDE, Skyvision, Etisalat, Sinosat, and Newskies ,
Eutalsat, Panamsat and Intelsat.

Dalkom, an international gateway and Internet backbone operator in
Somalia provides various products and solutions for the internet
services providers(ISP) , corporate institutions , learning centres
and cyber Cafees include cheap bandwidth through Its backbone,
internet over satellite and Premium routes for the content providers
and media operators as well international voice gateway services for
global carriers.

Dalkom Somalia considers the internet market is one of the fast
growing sectors in the country and it will keep on growing in the
next two decades as market is shifting into data and Voip services.
Most of the ISP are shifting to development of contents, integrated
solution of Voice and data, VOIP, hosting and video streaming as e-
commerce and media over internet are the deals of the day. Dalkom's
international gateway has a capacity to support the growing internet
market demand of country and still trying to source more affordable
bandwidth in the international market in order to improve
affordability of bandwidth in the local market as bandwidth becomes a
precious commodity in the market. Dalkom Somalia has also plans to
expand its international gateway services into regional operators by
building a sub-station in the regions of Somaliland and Puntland as
well the completion of its commercial national backbone in order to
further improve international connectivity of the country and
minimise the cost of network operations as the current international
gateway supports the network operators in South-central Somalia

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