Afghanistan - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Afghanistan - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Afghanistan turmoil puts fibre optic cable projects on indefinite hold Afghanistan was on the brink of unveiling the completion of a number of major telecom infrastructure projects in late-2021. However, the Taliban’s return to power following the collapse of the Afghan government and the withdrawal of international security forces has raised the prospect of these ventures never actually seeing the light of day. The Afghan central government collapsed on August 15, 2021, precipitating the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul then the remainder of the country almost within a single day. That put an end to a 20-year mission to establish a civil society. It also arrested the development and growth of the country’s telecom sector, which had to start from scratch in building a functioning network and connections to the outside world following the end of the previous Taliban regime’s rule in 2001. Part of the challenge involved building the infrastructure needed to support increasing demand for voice and data as the mobile subscription base rose from zero to close to 100% penetration. Afghanistan was making good progress in rolling out a nationwide optical fibre backbone, and a 400km cross-border fibre link with China (part of the Wakhan Corridor Fibre Optic Survey Project) was close to completion. Yet the Taliban had embarked on a strategy of destroying communications systems – the very same fibre cables being installed around the country as well as hundreds of mobile towers – in the leadup to the US announcing its withdrawal. The Taliban showed disdain for developing a modern communications system in the past; there seems little hope of a change in attitude that would result in the regime taking the final steps to get the fibre networks up and running.