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MOGADISHU, 15 November 2026 — Somalia plans to start building new fibre optic routes linking Hobyo and Galkayo, and Guumays and Buuhoodle, in January, with all of the country's telecommunications companies forming a consortium to co-invest, Communications and Technology Minister Mohamed Adan Moallim Ali said on Sunday.
The minister, speaking during a visit by Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre to the ministry, said an environmental assessment for the first route had been completed and that the contract was expected to be awarded in December, with work starting in January.
He said all telecom companies had joined the consortium so that each would no longer lay its own separate cables.
"Each company will be spared from digging its own trench for a cable it uses. It will be jointly owned and jointly invested in, and the government is also part of it," he said.
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The minister did not give the cost of the project, name the companies in the consortium or say when the two routes would be completed.
Somalia's domestic fibre network remains underdeveloped and fragmented, with isolated segments laid by different operators that do not connect. The World Bank has said the lack of a strong backbone network has led to unequal broadband access and uneven network quality.
The government has drawn up a unified fibre deployment policy intended to encourage telecom companies to cooperate in laying and expanding cables and to cut costs.
Somalia has one of the lowest internet usage rates in the region, at 27.6% in early 2024. The World Bank is supporting the country's digital connectivity through an $80 million Eastern Africa Regional Digital Integration Project (EA-RDIP).