Background
Afghanistan began its telecommunications reconstruction program in 2002 and started putting a new national telecommunications infrastructure in place. 
At thet time, Afghanistan had no telecommunications and no Internet.
The Minister of Communications set in motion a strategy to use information and communications technologies as essential elements to stimulate economic activity in all sectors. The goal of the Government’s Telecommunications Policy is to enable the rapid growth of affordable communications to all Afghans, whoever they may be and wherever they may be located in the country.
Currently, in addition to the incumbent Afghan Telecom, four cellular companies, several fixed local service providers, and about 18 Internet service providers operate in Afghanistan.
Teledensity including fixed and mobile has reached over 30 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
However, this development has occurred primarily in cities and large towns, while most remotely located rural areas continue without adequate telecommunications facilities.
The Telecommunications Services Regulation Law of Afghan, promulgated in December 2005,states that the Afghanistan Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ATRA) shall establish access to telecommunications services and shall ensure its availability. As a means to achieve Universal Access, the law has made provisions for the establishment of the Telecommunications Development Fund (TDF). TDF is collected from telecom operators since 2003. The purpose of this fund is to be utilized for facilitating the provision of telecom services in rural areas. Up to now, the Fund has accumulated more than a billion Afghani, and this money needs to be utilized for the development of rural telecommunications facilities. According to the provisions of the Telecom Law of Afghanistan, the Afghanistan Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has the responsibility to administer TDF for facilitating Universal Access in Afghanistan.
Universal Access Policy was finalized in late 2008, a copy of the UA Policy is available on ATRA’s website, www.atra.gov.af. The Manual of Operating Procedures for the utilization of TDF was also finalized in 2008. ATRA intends to start the UA program by a Pilot of Project of 20 Towers and BTSEs which will provide voice communication and internet access for the target rural communities. The areas which are selected for the Pilot Project belongs to the least served provinces and the mentioned districts have no access to telecommunications services other than costly satellite telephones.