A glance at the Telecom Developments in Afghanistan

 The telecommunications sector started its development activities after Bonn agreement in 2002, when the telephone penetration was less than 0.05% in the country. Telecom infrastructures were mainly damaged and Telecom services were moving towards a critical stage of non-existence. It was a real challenge for the newly established government of Afghanistan to meet the telecommunications requirements of the residential and business markets. The government took a pragmatic approach by ending its monopoly on the telecom sector and opened the market to private investment, applied minimum regulations and provided the required spectrum and support for the wireless access, backhaul and national backbone communication networks.
Currently, Afghanistan has more than 12.5 Million telephone subscribers (50% phone-density) which is comparable with the figures in other regional countries. Investment in the telecommunications sector, as per the reports provided at the end of the last quarter of 2009, exceeds US$ 1.3 Billion, and about 80% of the country’s population have access to telecommunications services. The remaining 20% of the population who do not have access to telecom services live in remote rural areas and are expected to be covered through the Universal Access Program.
There are five licensed cellular network operators at national level (4 GSM operators, one CDMA operator) and there are 23 small and medium size ISP licensees in the country serving close to about 1000,000 internet users throughout the country. There is a strong competition in the telecommunication market. As a result, the consumers have many choices for selection of service providers to meet their needs and requirements.
In addition to the above mentioned operators, ATRA has also issued an LFSP license to Wasel Telecom. In accordance with the given license, Wasel Telecom is authorized to provide CDMA services to 24 districts in four provinces of Balkh, Jawzjan, Baghlan and Kunduz. The latest report received from Wasel Telecom shows that this company has so far invested over US$24 million and is providing reasonably cheap and reliable voice and internet services to around 51,000 subscribers.
In order to provide access to telecommunications services in rural areas, ATRA has started making use of the Telecommunications Development Fund, TDF (or USO , which is financed by 2.5% of gross income of the telecom operators in the country. The first Rural Telecom Development project was awarded in June 2009. Until now ATRA, using the TDF fund has enabled some of the operators to extend their area of coverage to 40 very hard to reach district which would have been impossible otherwise. ATRA plans to spend over US$ 10 Million until March 2010 for the development of USO services in remote and un-served areas of the country.
Quality of service is one of the main objectives and ambitions of ATRA. For this very reason, ATRA has purchased quality of service facilities and has trained a number of personnel to carry out tests in various parts and areas of the country, simply to make sure that the operators are fulfilling their obligations based on the standards set in their licenses and to make sure that the end users do receive quality services which they need and deserve.  

Afghanistan Telecommunications Regulatory Authority
03 May 2010