Somalia to tax unregulated telcos

Somalia government plans to start governing its untaxed and unregulated telecommunications industry to boost growth and investment, reports Bloomberg.

The government has drafted rules for managing mobile phone frequencies, phone numbers and interconnection agreements.

Somalia's finance ministry is finalising the details of a tax to be introduced to the industry. Information, posts and telecommunications minister Abdulkareem Jama, says: “It will be something that will not discourage investment. We don't intend to over-regulate or over-tax.”

HCL Technologies is investing in emerging markets to drive its revenue growth over the next several years, states The Wall Street Journal.

Budget cuts, the European debt crisis and a slow recovery in the US has forced HCL to diversify its market, especially into Asia, Africa and Latin America, where several economies are growing at a fast pace again after shrugging off the effects of the slowdown.

In Africa, HCL Technologies is experiencing higher demand from telecommunications companies after Bharti Airtel entered that market last year, replicating its Indian business model of outsourcing technology operations.

Nigeria's second-largest operator Globacom has rolled out LTE services in the region, says Into Mobile.

Globacom COO Mohamed Jameel, says LTE will “enhance applications like interactive TV, mobile video blogging, advanced games or professional services, enabling more Nigerians to be on top of their game.”

According to a Wireless Intelligence report, Africa is expected to be the world's slowest region to move to LTE, accounting for only 1% of the global LTE market base by 2015.