Internet in Afghanistan
Information and Communication Technology's infrastructure
was totally destroyed during dark era of war in Afghanistan, especially during the regime of Taliban, the usage of Internet was totally restricted because Taliban thought
the usage of Internet to be against Islamic law and morality. Without the usage
of Internet, people weren't even able to use common communication means, such
as telephone connections and etc. People used satellite phones to communicate
with friends and family members who weren't living in Afghanistan.
After satellite phone, another good means of communication
was letters, which will also take weeks to get delivered and also in order to
send a letter a person had to wait for someone so he could take that letter to
the receiver because post offices weren't active either. In short we can say
that the communication infrastructure, whether it was through technology or
post office, was totally destroyed.
When the new government of Afghanistan was established in
2001, some of the very important governmental organizations were established
and rebuild and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology was
one of them. The establishment of MCIT made it possible to bring many opportunities
to the private sector. The private sector also made the best of the
opportunities and created a well established telecommunication infrastructure.
Currently, the active telecommunication companies in
Afghanistan are, Afghan Wireless, Roshan, Etisalat, MTN, Afghan Telecom. These
companies not only provide calling and messaging services but they have also
introduced 3G services with the help of which Afghans got access to the vast
cloud of Internet.
Internet appeared in Afghanistan in the year of 2002, prior
to that it was banned in Taliban regime because it was thought to be immoral
and anti-Islam. Internet in the current government is recognized to be an
important source of development and it is thought to create latest
opportunities for the government. Since then many projects has been conducted
to develop Internet sector in Afghanistan. In past years Fiber Optic and 3G
were introduced for general usage to the country.
Internet in Afghanistan, just like any other technology, has
seen various stages. When Internet was introduced, it connected Afghanistan
with the rest of the world. Since 2002 Internet in Afghanistan has seen lots of
changes in its users, bandwidth and prices.
The following statistics will help us understand the change
in users, bandwidth and prices.
The above pictures can be seen at MCIT's website (www.mcit.gov.af)
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