media landscape guide about Somalia - Internews

Somaliland still suffers problems of connectivity between its different mobilenetworks, but since 2000, the Somaliland Association of Telecom Operatorswhich has helped to tackle this.A Memorandum of Understanding signed by seven telecommunicationscompanies and the Association is helping to bring about a more harmonizeddevelopment of the sector in Somaliland.There are tentative plans to connect Somaliland to the East African submarinesubmarine Fibre optic cable EASSy in 2012.This cable runs along the sea bed along the coast of East Africa from Sudanto South Africa.A direct connection to it would open the way for faster and cheaper internetservices in Somaliland.The submarine cable is unlikely to be connected to other parts of Somalia areunlikely so long as they remain unstable and prone to conflictIn April 2011, Djibouti became the latest country to hook up to the EASSycable.88