In January of this year, the Afghanistan Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MCIT) and European satellite operations company Eutelsat Communications announced a multi-year deal that will reposition a satellite for use by Afghanistan’s burgeoning telecommunications industry. Renamed AFGHANSAT 1, the satellite will cover all of Afghanistan, as well as a large region of Central Asia and the Middle East.
The acquisition of satellite capacity is only the latest step in Afghanistan’s vigorous efforts to expand its telecommunications capabilities. Because of the ventures by government bodies like MCIT, local and foreign companies, and development organizations like the World Bank, post-war Afghanistan enjoys a vastly higher level of technology access than it did in 2001. Today, there are over 200 FM radio operators, 89 television operators, and 50 internet service providers. More than 88 percent of the population of Afghanistan is covered by mobile phone service, with over 21 million GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) subscribers, while companies like Afghan Wireless are rapidly introducing even newer mobile technologies like 3G to an expanding customer base.
Every year, the increasing penetration of telecommunications technologies into Afghanistan brings more and more economic opportunity to the nation’s people.