Somalia

Overview

Somalia (Soomaaliya / الصومال‎‎), officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, and Kenya to the southwest. Northwestern Somalia seceded in 1991 to form Somaliland however is largely unrecognised by the international community.

Telecommunications Regulatory Environment

Somalia is a member of the ITU and as such follows radio frequency harmonisation principles according to ITU-R Region-1. The regulatory body governing communications policy is the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Technology, and the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Technology is charged with regulating the country's radio frequency spectrum activities such as planning, allocations, and licencing.

Market

As of 2017 Somalia’s mobile telephony market is relatively well developed with a penetration rate of about 60%, but in contrast, the Internet sector remains underdeveloped with less than 3% of the population having broadband access, one of the lowest rates in the world.

Spectrum management issues remain a major challenge for the sector as a whole and more specifically for the ISPs. Signal interference is a challenging reality within Mogadishu.