Internet returns to Mogadishu

Telecom Somalia, better known as Olympic Telecommunications, has brought the internet back to Mogadishu after a two-month absence, a senior manager of the company told IRIN. "We started providing internet online services as of yesterday," Abdullahi Muhammad Husayn, the deputy general manager of Telecom Somalia, said on Wednesday. Internet services were cut off in Mogadishu last November after the closure of the Al-Barakaat company, one of the organisations running the service. The Al-Barakaat group is one of the 62 organisations and individuals which the US authorities have accused of having links with terrorism, and whose assets were seized worldwide on 7 November. The group has consistently denied the charge, and accused the US government of responding to "rumours and lies". Abdullahi said the company would not open internet cafes, but would make the service available to individuals wishing to open such facilities. The service would cost users US $3 per hour. He said many international aid organisations with offices in Mogadishu had already signed up for the service. Meanwhile, a new telecommunications company opened its doors in Mogadishu on Tuesday, a local businessman told IRIN. The company, Netexchange, is wholly owned by Somalis and also comes into operation two months after Al-Barakaat, the largest telecommunications company in Somalia, was shut down. Netexchange is charging its customers US $0.60 per minute for all international calls, lower than the current US $1 charged by other companies, the businessman said. "I believe this a promotional price, to cut into the market share of the established companies."