Telecommunication services in Afghanistan: trends and challenges
Student name: Mr Matiullah Kamran
Guide: Dr Ritika Mahajan
Year of completion: 2015
Host Organisation: Directorate of E-government of Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Kabul, Afghanis
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr Abdul Mujeeb Mohmand
Abstract: Fast, reasonable, cost effective communication helps in stimulating economic growth, improving life standards, improving access to government services, creating educational opportunities, connecting the world as one village. A modern communication network can play a vital role in narrowing physical distances and easing access to information. Furrther, it serves as a very good source of revenue for the private sector as well as for the government.
Telecommunication has played a constructive role in social, economic, political and security aspect in Afghanistan. Since 2002 the Government of Afghanistan has designed policies of telecom sector in order to utilize the sector for socio-economic development. As Afghanistan is in a developing stage, telecom sector has attracted overwhelming attention of government and brought significationt positive changes for the population which now engages in using modern information technology. However, some challenges pertaining to quality and cost still remain and actions need to be taken by the government as well as private sector for the betterment of this sector.
This research is based on an internship completed in the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in Afghanistan during the period of January to May 2015. Apart from secondary data collected to study trends in the sector in Afghanistan, a parimary data was collected from officials in the Ministry as well as consumers to understand challenges facing the sector. Recommendations have been proposed for the policy makers as well as telecommunication companies based on the research for improving telecommonication services in Afghanistan.
Keyword: Telecommunication, trend, challenges, private sector, socio-economic
