The National Communications Authority (NCA) of Somalia announced, on February 17, 2020, the entry into force of the new telecom license regime. The new regulatory framework, guided by the National Communications Law of 2017, offers more flexible, simplified and technology and service neutral licenses.
Consequently, investors who want to enter the Somali telecoms market will now have to choose between three main segments: the communications infrastructure provider license, the application service provider license, and the infrastructure and communications provider license. communication services.
Abdi Sheik Ahmed (photo), the director general of the NCA, explained that through this new licensing regime the telecoms regulator has set himself the priority of proposing an operating framework, which not only takes into account the context local, but which also responds to future technological developments.
It aims to: encourage the growth of new services and applications; simplification of licensing procedures to facilitate market entry and operations; offer regulatory flexibility to cope with market and technological developments; efficient use of network resources so that individual networks can be used to provide a wide range of ICT services.
The NCA boss said that “current ICT service providers have until April 1, 2020 to apply for the relevant licenses, otherwise they will be treated as new entrants.”
The adoption of Somalia’s new telecom license regime is the result of a public consultation launched last October by the NCA with the various players in the national ICT sector. Since 1991 the country has no longer had an official telecom license regime.