Little is known about Somali phone cards. In 1993, chip cards issued by Aerolite Somalia Telecommunications Ltd appeared in the collectibles market: the country had just come out of the civil war, and some private companies began offering their telephone services, dedicated also to the American peacekeepers and the blue helmets of the UN. Of these first cards there are at least three variants: one with a face value of 5 minutes, and two with a value of 100 units. Probably the first issued, which was perhaps just a test and is extremely rare, was just that of 5 minutes value.
