Communications in Liberia

Liberia

Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

consist of telephone lines and cellular phone networks. A lot of the telephone lines were destroyed or plundered in the two civil wars, making cellular phone networks a popular and safer alternative that reach remore regions of the country.

Press

The main newspapers are:

• The Analyst
• New Democrat
• National Chronicle
• The Liberian Analyst Corporation
• Daily Observer
• The Daily Talk
  The Daily Talk
  The Daily Talk is an English-language news medium published daily on a blackboard on Tubman Boulevard in the center of the Liberian capital Monrovia...
  
  

Fixed telephones

The fixed line infrastructure of Liberia was nearly completely destroyed during the civil war. In 2006, the country had approximately 5,000 fixed lines installed, almost exclusively in the Monrovia area. Prior to the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 2007, the state-owned Liberia Telecommunications Corporation

Liberia Telecommunications Corporation

The Liberia Telecommunications Corporation is a telecommunications company providing services in Liberia. Headquartered in Monrovia, the company provides telephone, Internet, fax and radio services to the Greater Monrovia area...

 (LIBTELCO) held a legal monopoly

Legal monopoly

A legal monopoly, statutory monopoly, or de jure monopoly is a monopoly that is protected by law from competition. A statutory monopoly may take the form of a government monopoly where the state owns the particular means of production or government-granted monopoly where a private interest is...

 for all fixed line services in Liberia, and remains the sole licensed fixed line telephone service provider in the country.

Mobile telephones

Four licensed GSM service providers operate in the country: Lonestar Cell

Lonestar Cell

Lonestar Cell is a telecommunications company based in Monrovia, Liberia. The company owns and operates the largest wireless telecommunications network in Liberia, with 48% of the market share in 2011. Founded in 2000 by Beirut-based Investcom, the company became a subsidiary of the South African...

, CellCom, LiberCell and Comium. Approximately 45% of the population has cell phone service.

Radio

In 2001, there were 0 AM radio broadcast stations, 7 FM, and 2 shortwave

Shortwave

Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...

, with 790,000 radio receivers.

Radio stations include:

• STAR radio
  STAR radio
  STAR radio is a FM radio station in the West African nation of Liberia. Founded in 1997, it is independent of the country’s government. Headquartered in Monrovia, it broadcasts at the 104 FM frequency and via shortwave radio.-History:...
  
  
• ELBC
• Truth FM
• Radio Veritas
• UNMIL radio - UNMIL
• LUX 106.6 FM - University of Liberia
  University of Liberia
  The University of Liberia is a publicly funded institution of higher learning located in Monrovia, Liberia. Authorized by the national government in 1851, the school opened in 1863 as Liberia College and became a university in 1951. The school is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning...
  
  
• 89.5 FM - Voice of Firestone – Liberia

Television

As of 2001 there was one television broadcast station plus four low-power repeaters, while as of 1997 there were 70,000 television receivers.

• Real TV

Internet

Internet services are currently limited to the Monrovia

Monrovia

Monrovia is the capital city of the West African nation of Liberia. Located on the Atlantic Coast at Cape Mesurado, it lies geographically within Montserrado County, but is administered separately...

 area. The Country code (Top-level domain) is LR

.lr

.lr is the Internet country code top-level domain for Liberia. Before 2003 the registration was limited to those with a local presence and intent to use the domain. Since 2003 these limitations no longer exist....

.