Telecom Companies in Hargeisa Accused of Forming Cartel over Internet Tariffs

[Deeq A.]

Telesom and Somtel have been accused of forming a cartel in Hargeisa.

Hargeisa (PP News Desk) —Telecommunication companies in territories controlled by the Somaliland administration have been accused of forming a cartel to increase Internet Service Provider tariffs. Last week, several telecoms agreed to increase the price of Internet data widely used by young mobile telephone users. “There is no dire economic situation that can justifiably cause the increase in Internet Service Provider (ISP) fees. The young are unemployed but manage their boredom through the use of affordable Internet service,” said Yusuf Shair, a poet and activist in Hargeisa.

Dr Guled Dalfa’, a lawyer, faults the political system of the secessionist administration of Somaliland for making politicians beholden to businessmen. “Companies buy off politicians. A politician whose campaign was funded by companies will serve the interests of companies, not his or her constituents. We do not have a register of interests in which politicians declare their assets before assuming public office,” said Dr Dalfa’.

In 2016, a World Bank report highlighted “perceptions that the [Somaliland] government is too susceptible to private sector capture”. Hirsi Haji, a senior leader of the Waddani Party, wrote an autobiography in 2018 after resigning from the Silaanyo government. Hirsi deplored the extent to which the Somaliland government served certain business leaders at the expense of the public.

“A politician indebted to business puts the interests of business first,” said Dr Dalfa’, who is campaigning to expose businesses’ undue influence on the incumbent administration of President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi. In 2011, wholesalers in Hargeisa opened retail outlets in the markets to undercut prices of retailers who buy from wholesalers. Abdirisaq Khalif, then the Minister of Commerce of the Somaliland administration, convened a summit whose outcome obliged wholesalers not to trade as retailers.

Telecom companies in Hargeisa have lost a significant market share to Golis Telecom, based in Garowe, which provides ISP services and mobile money services to people in both Puntland State of Somalia and North East State. “Some telecom customers in Puntland have not had their Internet service fees raised, but here in Hargeisa companies conspired to increase the fees to assuage complaints from shareholders upset with lost market share,” said an economist in Hargeisa.

© Puntland Post, 2025

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