A Nation on the Line
The Story of the Afghan Wireless
Communication Company
AWCC satellite links on the Ministry of Communications Building in Kabul,
Afghanistan, overlook the central Bazaar and business district.
Afghan Wireless Communication Company
Mohammad Jan Khan Watt
Ministry of Communications Building
Kabul, Afghanistan
Telephone Systems International, Inc.
Parker Plaza 16th Floor
400 Kelby Street
Fort Lee, NJ 07024
USA
Copyright 2002.
Telephone Systems International, Inc.
www.telsysint.com
For information, contact:
Matthew Petrillo
Director of Public Affairs
+1 202 737-6070
[email protected]
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A Nation on the Line
In November 2001, just after the Taliban regime abandoned Kabul, Afghanistan
had approximately 20,000 working telephone lines for a population of 27 million.
Only a handful of these were connected to the outside world. Outside Kabul, only
expensive satellite phones and a few private systems could make international or
inter-city telephone calls. Most Afghans did not have phones—at home or at
work—and could make calls only by waiting in line for hours to use limited public
call centers.
On a broader scale, political, economic and social challenges were competing for
the attention and limited resources of the interim government. International
assistance that had been promised had not materialized. Without these funds, the
government could not undertake the development projects that are vital to the
nation’s future. Meanwhile, the lack of basic services—including telecom—
seriously hampered the government’s ability to maintain order.
Into this environment stepped Ehsan Bayat, an Afghan-American entrepreneur with
a mission to reconnect Afghanistan with the wider world. Within weeks of the
Taliban’s downfall, he had begun seeking communications service suppliers and
equipment vendors willing to take the risks necessary to build a phone system in a
country still emerging from more than two decades of war.
In December 2001, Mr. Bayat’s company, Telephone Systems International (TSI)
signed contracts with a handful of small, aggressive suppliers to provide cuttingedge wireless technology that would allow him to establish service in Afghanistan
with maximum speed. The larger, more established suppliers approached at that
time would not take the risk.
UZBEKISTAN
CHINA
The first phase of the Afghan Wireless
deployment covers five key cities.
As of January 2003, four cities have service:
Kabul, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif, and
Kandahar. The second phase will roll out
service to the provincial capitals, indicated
by the blue dots on the map.
TAJIKISTAN
TURKMENISTAN

Mazar-i-sharif
KABUL

Herãt
IRAN
 Jalãlãbãd
INDIA

Kandahãr
PAKISTAN
 GSM City Sites (5)
Provincial Capital Sites (26)
INDIA
The Afghan Wireless Story
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Planning for such a system posed a number of challenges. Usage at the public call
centers showed a strong demand for telecom services, but no one knew whether
the population at large could support a commercial venture. TSI, and its operating
subsidiary, Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC)—a joint venture
with the Afghan Ministry of Communications—planned a service with the
expectation of signing up 5,000 subscribers in the first year, made up largely of
government officials (foreign and domestic), journalists and aid workers, as these
were the primary users of satellite phones.
Wireless technology was the only choice for such a system. Installing a landline
system would be too time consuming, costly and potentially dangerous.
The global system for mobile communication (GSM) was chosen as the wireless
platform because it is the most widely used in the region, which is important for
interconnectivity. In addition, GSM’s worldwide popularity could provide the large
pool of talented and creative engineers and suppliers essential for a project of
this kind.
TSI Founder and President
Ehsan Bayat, center, greets
children in an Afghan village
outside Kabul
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Determination to Break a Vicious Circle
Ehsan Bayat knew from experience that persistence and determination would be
required, along with technical capability and creativity, to make his planned wireless
system a reality. This was not his first foray into telecommunications development in
Afghanistan. In 1995, prior to the rise of the Taliban regime, TSI had initiated plans to
provide public telephone services in Afghanistan. That project was barely off the ground
when the U.S. banned trade with the Taliban in 1999. During the Taliban regime,
telecom services actually deteriorated in Afghanistan due to neglect. Because of
the U.S. sanctions, TSI was forced to sit on the sidelines until the Bonn Agreement,
signed in November 2001, brought a new government, new hope and new opportunities
to Afghanistan.
For years Afghans have had only two choices
for making a phone call: They could chance
the spotty public phone system, or travel to a
neighboring country. Many chose the latter,
especially to make international phone calls,
despite the time-consuming trip and associated
dangers.
Chairman Karzai makes first
Afghan Wireless call during
April 2002 launch ceremony
The cost of these trips and the calls consumed
much of what little money many Afghans
could accumulate—mostly from repatriated
funds supplied by the extensive Afghan
Diaspora in the U.S., UK, Canada and
elsewhere. A vicious circle had developed in
which repatriated funds were spent on
international calls placed from out of the
country, which often were undertaken in order
to get more money. Only a small proportion of
these funds, therefore, could stay within
Afghanistan.
In 2001, TSI revived the Afghan Wireless partnership with the Ministry of
Communications, which holds a 20% stake. The company began construction of its
Kabul network in late January 2002. Within an astonishing nine weeks a limited
wireless communications system was available to the public in Kabul, including directdialed international service via satellite and voice mail capability. In recognition of
the desperate need for communications of any kind, the partners agreed to move as
rapidly as possible to launch service. This meant Afghan Wireless and its vendors would
need to design, install, test and operate the network all at once.
On April 6, 2002, Afghanistan’s interim leader, Chairman Hamid Karzai, launched the
GSM network by placing the first call to an Afghan émigré in Germany. The event was
heralded as the most significant step to-date in Afghanistan’s nascent entry into the
modern world.
The Afghan Wireless Story
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Overcoming Operational, Environmental and
Design Challenges
Afghan Wireless has overcome many challenges in order to build, launch and
maintain its wireless service. Electric power in Kabul remains intermittent and
unreliable. Elsewhere power service is worse or non-existent. What transportation
infrastructure exists has been badly damaged by two decades of war. There still are
no functional highways between major cities, although construction has begun on
some routes. The interim government’s authority beyond Kabul is limited, and
security and safety concerns are never far away.
AWCC’s base stations must be powered by independent generators, which requires
that fuel be delivered regularly over uncertain roads, and guarded 24 hours a day,
seven days a week. On-site construction teams soon found, too, that there was no
usable gravel available in Afghanistan—an irony in such a rocky country—
because local materials could not be sifted to remove destabilizing dirt. Gravel
and other building materials were hauled in from Pakistan to install cell towers and
base stations. Afghan Wireless was rapidly becoming a construction and logistics
company, as well as a communications service provider.
The Afghan Wireless service platform
presently relies almost exclusively on
pre-paid billing, using “top-up” cards
purchased in fixed units at AWCC retail
outlets and customer service centers.
Afghanistan does not yet have a banking
system or even reliable postal service—
the bare necessities for post-paid billing.
Pre-paid service also eliminates a
significant risk of bad debt and
delinquent payments, which is a
common concern in developing markets.
The lack of basic telecommunications
infrastructure for long distance
The first Afghan Wireless
customer receives his phone
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communications was another critical challenge. Afghan Wireless inter-city and
international services require the use of satellites to carry calls between distant
locations because there are no functioning telecommunications lines outside the
urban centers. Linking a wireless system with satellites requires skilled
engineering. In order to overcome challenges introduced by satellites—such as
signal fade, inteference and delay—the Afghan Wireless network is designed to
minimize the number of times each call must travel into space to reach a satellite.
A “one-hop” architecture was established to reduce delays to levels almost
unnoticeable to GSM customers.
The lack of any formal market or regulatory structures creates additional hurdles.
Initially, the national numbering plan did not include wireless numbers, so Afghan
Wireless engineers designed and implemented with the government a plan
allowing for the efficient interconnection of the existing wireline and the new
wireless networks. The plan was arranged to permit expansion and accommodate
multiple carriers for both wireline and wireless services.
There also has been no oversight of the use of radio spectrum, requiring AWCC
engineers to clear interference on a regular basis. Formal spectrum plans and
assignments are expected to be finalized in early 2003.
Afghan Wireless continues to work with its partner, the Ministry of
Communications, to develop local skills and expertise necessary to manage
telecommunications development, oversee the provision of service, and operate
the national telecom network. The company has also encouraged international
expert assistance from organizations such the International Telecommunication
Union and the Adam Smith Institute.
The Afghan Wireless Story
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Investing in Communities
Despite the challenges Afghan Wireless’s
international connectivity and pre-paid
billing proved to be a winning combination.
Within months the network had grown to
seven cell sites in Kabul and work was
beginning in four other major cities: Herat,
Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar, and Jalalabad.
The Kabul network was already hosting 2,000
subscribers by June’s emergency Loya Jirga
(Grand Council), which met to form the
second interim Afghan administration.
Afghan Wireless provided communications
support to the meeting by temporarily
diverting equipment destined for its other
city projects.
Afghan Wireless employs local women for help
desk and customer service operations
In July the company opened the country’s
first-ever public Internet café in Kabul. In early August, it brought Herat on line,
initiating the first multi-city wireless communications service in Afghanistan.
The company plans to offer wireless Internet support in all five cities, using
state-of-the-art IEEE 802.11b radios collocated with its GSM facilities.
In September 2002, Mazar-i-Sharif joined the network. Kandahar received
commercial service in late November, with Jalalabad soon to follow. In Kabul,
switches have been upgraded to add capacity and have been interconnected with
the remnants of the government-owned landline system to help provide the public
network with its first international connectivity in years.
Within nine months of initial service launch, the entire Afghan Wireless network
was hosting more than 25,000 subscribers and handling upwards of 30,000 calls
during peak hours—more than three times the expected growth rate for the first
year. TSI’s $60 million initial investment—the largest private investment in the
country’s history—is paying off as a significant factor in improving the lives of
many Afghans, and its benefits are only growing.
Aside from providing communications access to many people who have never had
their own phone, a large portion of the money spent by Afghan Wireless
subscribers goes back directly into the Afghan economy. Afghan Wireless employs
more than 300 local workers—in jobs ranging from management, help desk and
customer service support, to security and maintenance. Its cadre of expatriate
engineers and construction specialists spend money in Afghanistan, too.
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Building for Success
As early as July 2002 it became clear that the initial network design would be
inadequate to meet the level of demand. Downtown Kabul proved to be a
particularly difficult area in this regard. The city has an extremely dense business
and government district. As the work of the Afghan government increased, so has
usage at the core of Afghan Wireless’s network.
Few government offices have working internal phone systems and those that do are
not interconnected to each other. So, in government buildings the Afghan Wireless
GSM network has become the de facto office phone. In some buildings, the mobile
network even is used to call other offices in the same building. This pattern—
characterized by long phone calls and dense intra-cell usage—placed tremendous
pressure on the system, which was designed for mobile use, with calls passing from
one cell site to the next.
Faced with the need to upgrade its Kabul network to accommodate demand, Afghan
Wireless expedited its development strategy by devoting more resources to the
capital in order to alleviate the extraordinary pressures created by heavy and dense
usage. Such upgrades initially were planned to follow the five-city buildout.
However, by redoubling its investment, Afghan Wireless is making major upgrades in
Kabul and elsewhere while also extending service to unserved areas. In the fall of
2002, new base stations were added (a total of 13 are currently operating in Kabul),
and the city’s switch was upgraded to handle 35,000 simultaneous phone calls.
Afghan Wireless
donated 30 GSM
phones and local
service to the Kabul
Police and Fire
Departments for
emergency service
support
The Afghan Wireless Story
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These investments have paid off. Over the three-day Eid-al-Fitr holiday in December
2002, the Afghan Wireless network successfully connected 300,000 phone calls, most
of them international. More friends and families were able to exchange holiday
greetings over the phone than perhaps any time in Afghanistan’s history.
Looking to the Future
Afghan Wireless and its U.S. parent company, TSI, are meeting challenges on many
fronts. They are making significant new investments in network improvement, are
continuing to deploy service across the country and are adding features and improving
quality to extend the value of Afghan Wireless’s services—all while lowering prices as
they are able to negotiate better service and supply contracts with international
vendors.
Significantly, the major equipment makers that a year ago would not touch a deal to
do business in Afghanistan are now signing contracts with Afghan Wireless for
switching equipment, radio infrastructure, international link support and back office
and billing systems.
The company is also preparing for competition to begin early this year. The Ministry of
Communications in January 2003 issued a license to a second GSM provider.
Through a public tender offer, an international consortium of companies has bid
$5 million to enter the market, which is a testament to the opportunities made possible
by AWCC’s trailblazing investment and surprising success across a broad segment of
the Afghan population.
Afghan Wireless is also investing in the community, providing free or low-cost support
for emergency services, government functions and community groups. In October
2002, the company donated 30 phones and service to the Ministry of the Interior for
use by Kabul police and fire units. Plans are under way to provide similar services to
emergency personnel in other cities. In addition, mobile Afghan wireless demonstration
units take telecommunications to outlying areas, allowing people without easy access
to learn about wireless services and make a free phone call anywhere in the world.
With so much success in so short a time, Afghan Wireless’s efforts may become
a template for foreign investment in developing markets. What’s more, the experience
gained by its Afghan employees will help them re-create their success in other markets
in Afghanistan or anywhere.
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Afghan Wireless Milestones 2002
January
· Construction begins on wireless network in Kabul.
April
· GSM service launches in Kabul after only 9 weeks,
with 4 base stations.
June
· Afghan Wireless provides loya jirga with voice and
data services.
July
· Afghanistan’s 1st Internet café opens in
Intercontinental Hotel, Kabul.
· Kabul receives 3 additional base stations.
August
· GSM service launches in Herat.
September
· GSM service launches in Mazar-i-Sharif.
· Kabul receives an additional base station.
October
· Donation of 30 mobile handsets and service to
Ministry of the Interior to support Fire and Police
Services in Kabul.
November
· GSM service launches in Kandahar.
· Kabul receives additional base station, for total of 13.
· Implementation of Customer Care & Billing
System commences.
December
· More than 20,000 subscribers; nearly 5,000 added
in one month.
· Investment of more than $60 million to-date is largest
private investment in the nation’s history.
· More than 6,000 man-days of training provided to
Afghan staff to-date.
The Afghan Wireless Story
Telephone Systems International, Inc.
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A Nation on the Line
The Story of the Afghan Wireless Communication Company