Stay Connected in Mogadishu

Connectivity in Mogadishu beats expectations. Somalia leapfrogged landline infrastructure entirely, so mobile data is the default for everyone, and competition between a handful of carriers keeps prices low. You'll find 4G across most of central Mogadishu, including the airport, the diplomatic enclave around Halane, and the Lido Beach corridor. The speed surprises people. Video calls home tend to work well enough, though you might get the occasional dropout in older buildings. The frustrating bits are real too. Power cuts knock out cell towers in some neighborhoods, foreign roaming is patchy and absurdly expensive, and the registration paperwork for a local SIM is stricter than you'd expect for a country often described as lawless. One more thing worth flagging. Most hotels in Mogadishu now bundle WiFi with the room. But quality varies wildly, and you should plan for mobile data as your primary connection, not a backup.

Three carriers matter in Mogadishu: Hormuud Telecom, Somtel, and Golis (though Golis is stronger up north in Puntland). Hormuud is the giant of the bunch, holding the bulk of the market share in south-central Somalia, and it's the one most travelers end up on. Coverage in Mogadishu itself is solid on Hormuud across Hodan, Hamar Weyne, Wadajir, and along the airport road. Somtel takes the speed crown downtown. If you're staying near Lido Beach or in the Halane compound, Somtel 4G often clocks faster on speed tests, mainly for uploads. Golis works, but you'll see weaker signal in Mogadishu proper, which makes sense given its northern home base. Speeds vary by tower load too. Daytime in Hodan or near the K4 junction can feel sluggish, while evenings smooth out. Outside the city, coverage gets spotty once you're past Afgooye or heading toward Marka. Fair warning on that one. Hormuud's mobile money platform, EVC Plus, is also worth knowing about because cash handling in Mogadishu increasingly assumes you have it. Activate it early.

Trust no public network here. Hotel WiFi in Mogadishu, including at the better-known places near Lido Beach and the Halane area, is generally open or uses a shared password posted at reception, which means anyone else on the network can potentially see your traffic. Airport WiFi at Aden Adde is similarly unencrypted. Travelers in Mogadishu attract attention, both casual and otherwise, so treating any public network as untrusted is sensible, not paranoid. A VPN like NordVPN encrypts everything leaving your device, so even on a compromised network your banking app, email, and messages stay readable only to you. Install it before you fly. Some VPN download sites can be slow or intermittently blocked once you're on local networks. Use it for anything involving logins, payments, or sensitive communication. Risk covered.