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Afghanistan's Siri Birgitte Uldal and International Perspectives Muhammad Aimal Marjan Computing in Post-War Afghanistan Reflecting on recent history and the context of current events. fghanistan’s history can be structure. On Oct. 9, 2004, TELECOMMUNICATIONS A traced back over 5,000 years. Hamid Karzai was elected presi- Siemens installed Afghanistan’s Many of its cities thrived as dent and in December 2004, first telephone network in 1957 trading centers on the ancient Silk Amirzai Sangin took up the posi- in Kabul with a capacity of 5,000 Road. In the mid-1960s, King tion as the Minister of Commu- lines.2 During the Taliban regime Zahir Shah started Afghanistan on nications. in 1998, the CIA estimated there the road toward democracy with Afghanistan has a population were 29,000 functioning tele- nascent free elections, a parlia- of 29.9 million, with 47% less phone lines for a country about ment, civil rights, and emancipa- than 15 years old. An estimated tion for women [8]. The King was 80% works in agriculture. The 2Ironically, what may have been the world’s first mil- itary use of the telephone in a war zone occurred on ousted in a coup in 1973, which literacy rate is 36%, which breaks the northwest frontier of the British Raj during the was followed by other largely pro- down into 51% of men and 21% campaign against the Jowaki tribe, 1877–78, near 1 what is now the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. This Soviet coups. In 1979, the Soviet of women. The per capita GDP use of the telephone occurred within a year or two of Union invaded Afghanistan but in purchasing power parity is its invention [5]. was forced to withdraw 10 years $800. There are large variations later by U.S.-aided anti-commu- between regions and ethnic nist and Islamist mujahidin. communities. The wars After the Soviet departure, the have left the country in country descended into civil war, poverty with a lack of which was supplanted by Taliban educated workers, poor rule after the regime captured infrastructure, and Kabul in 1996. many residual Following the Sept. 11, 2001 land mines [4]. terrorist attacks, the Taliban was defeated by the U.S.-led invasion, which backed Afghanistan’s 1Readers should be aware that some figures in this Northern Alliance. In late 2001, column may not be as accurate leaders from the Afghan opposi- as corresponding data for many Y Western countries. Both statistical E tion groups and diaspora met in N databases and academic sources A H are often nonexistent due to lack Bonn, Germany. They agreed on A S of infrastructure after the I L a plan for a new governmental past wars. COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM February 2006/Vol. 49, No. 2 19 International Perspectives As with many other developing countries, intellectual property rights are often not respected, which forces companies to emphasize other income-generating activities. the size of Texas. By 2001, Afghanistan was still strongly Telecommunications Department approximately 20,000 lines influenced by warlords. During is responsible for the terrestrial remained mainly at bazaar phone 2002 and 2003, AWCC suffered network that existed during the booths in the largest cities [3]. from overselling, and poor con- Taliban era. The network has The Taliban controlled the tele- nections, but the quality has since been upgraded and expanded phone networks. Only Herat improved. AWCC also owns the with the help of aid funds and is province had a modern digital primary international satellite available in 34 cities. In Septem- network with a total capacity of gateway for phone traffic routed ber 2005, the Telecommunica- 7,000 lines. The cost of an inter- through Guam. tions Department was officially national call was $1.20 per In 2002, the Ministry of Com- separated from the MoC and minute in 1999; it decreased to munication (MoC) announced a transformed into a state-owned 80 cents a year later. second GSM license. That Octo- enterprise named Afghan Tele- ber, Telecom Development Com- com. Afghan Telecom is encour- nly a month after the Bonn pany Afghanistan Limited, a aged to become a market-oriented Oagreement, the Afghan- consortium trading as Roshan, and commercial enterprise by American entrepreneur won the bidding round. When engaging operating and invest- Ehsan Bayat established the Roshan announced its first day of ment partners. Afghan Telecom Afghan Wireless Communication phone sales, approximately 6,000 was charging 35 cents per minute Company (AWCC) with support people queued up. for an international phone call by from the interim government. A People driven out by the wars June 2005. year later AWCC was present in have given Afghanistan a large The MoC consists of nine four of the largest cities: Kabul, diaspora. This has caused a huge departments. The Spectrum Man- Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, and demand for communication with agement Office issues spectrum Herat. All communication infra- families and friends abroad. licenses for radio, among other structures had to be built from Roshan has since expanded to duties. The Regulatory Authority scratch. Gravel and other build- become Afghanistan’s largest tele- of Afghanistan is responsible for ing materials were transported com operator, establishing mobile the implementation of a national from Pakistan to install cell tow- services in 25 cities by June 2005 policy on competition and market ers and base stations [3]. Local [11]. AWCC and Roshan both liberalization. Moreover, this negotiations concerning the setup charged 45 cents per minute for department issues licenses for pro- of cell towers and base stations an international phone call. vision of telecommunication net- were necessary because As part of the MoC, the work and Internet services. 20 February 2006/Vol. 49, No. 2 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM In mid-2005 there were power supplies, and network United Nations Development approximately 900,000 phones, equipment such as network cards, Programme (UNDP), the MoC giving the country a teledensity of hubs, and switches. has established 12 computer 3. The cities with telecommuni- There are approximately 30 training centers in Kabul, Herat, cations are connected via very companies in Afghanistan offer- Jalalabad, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kanda- small aperture terminals (VSATs). ing software development and har, and Konduz for civil ser- The MoC and its partners have computer engineering, which vants, women, and the general plans for telecommunication focus mainly on providing Inter- population. Two labs are certified access in a three-tier structure. net access, Web development and Cisco Networking Academies and The first priority has been to pro- hosting in addition to consulting there were plans to extend the vide access to the largest cities, services and teaching. As with academies to three more thereafter to provincial capitals, many other developing countries, provinces by the end of last year. and finally to the individual intellectual property rights are At the level of higher education, municipalities. By mid-2006, 90 often not respected, which forces the Kabul University Computer districts are expected to have con- companies to emphasize other Science Department opened in nections through VSATs. Further- income-generating activities. 1995. During the Taliban regime, more, two new licenses for GSM After the war, a surge of approxi- five teachers were employed. The were issued in September 2005 to mately 200 non-governmental department graduated nine of 30 Investcom/Alokozai and Watan organizations (NGOs) established enrolled students. However, the Mobile LL. A fiber ring project offices in Kabul, creating a department lacked electricity and was recently opened for the solici- demand for Internet access and computers, resulting in a purely tation of bids. Web pages. theoretical education. The MoC has plans for an Today, a four-year bachelor COMPUTING industrial park to spur company degree is offered, and the depart- Afghanistan’s computing history growth. So far, the plans have ment has 80 computers for the dates back at least to 1971 when failed due to lack of funds. How- students. Languages taught the Afghan Computer Centre ever, through World Bank collab- include Java, Visual Java, Visual installed an IBM 360 computer oration the MoC has established C, and Assembly together with at Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel. videoconference studios in Kabul five operating systems. Kabul The computer was used to and 20 provinces, which are pub- University also houses a Cisco process the country’s demo- licly available on a commercial Networking Regional Academy. graphic and economic statistics. basis. Computer literacy is in great During the following years, the demand, perhaps because it is Afghan Computer Centre bought omputer education is a fairly seen as providing a secure liveli- four mainframe computers. The Cprofitable industry. There hood. At Kabul University, com- Centre was closed in 1993, and are possibly 500–1,000 pri- puter science education has been did not reopen until 2001. In vate computer training centers in on an open admissions basis, and June 2005, it was reconstituted as Afghanistan, many of which are thus no applicants are rejected. the Afghanistan National Data located in Kabul. Usually these By autumn 2004 there were 320 Centre. training centers offer basic com- students, of which 120 had just After the Taliban era, a num- puter education along with Eng- enrolled that term. Education is ber of computer shops opened in lish courses. still suffering from the wars; only the larger cities. Typically, these The centers’ activities have 45 students have received diplo- shops sell desktop computers, been encouraged by the NGO mas since the department printers, scanners, uninterruptible presence. Together with the opened. Besides Kabul University, COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM February 2006/Vol. 49, No. 2 21 International Perspectives Yet the largest number of Afghan Internet sites can still likely be found amongst the three million people in the diaspora.
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