Decades of war left Afghanistan’s telecommunications infrastructure in ruins. Even today there is estimated to be just one telephone for every 550 Afghan citizens; communications between provinces is extremely limited and, in smaller towns, effectively non-existent.

During the Taliban era access to the Internet by ordinary citizens was banned, on the grounds that it promoted obscenity and immorality. Since coming to power in 2002 the transitional government has firmly embraced new telecommunications and Internet technologies, which it regards as an essential prerequisite to achieving the nation’s development and reconstruction goals.

Because of the poor state of the landline system, most Afghans must access the net through a wireless broadband system, though this situation is slowly changing. Afghanistan’s first Internet Service Provider (ISP) was the Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC), a joint venture between the Ministry of Communications and a US company, which opened Kabul’s first Internet café in July 2002. Since that time the Ministry of Communications has issued six more ISP licenses to companies, making Internet services available in Mazar e Sharif, Herat, Kandahar and six other centres, as well as in Kabul.

At the time of writing ISP licences are issued by the Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs, which operates a two-class licence system which distinguishes between providers of international Internet Protocol Connectivity (International Transit ISPs) and domestic Internet Service Providers (National ISPs). A new Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Afghanistan (TRAA) is currently being established by the Ministry of Communications, and in 2005 this body is expected to take over responsibility for issuing ISP licences from the Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs.

Soon after the transitional government came to power, it gave the UNDP responsibility for restoring the Afghan ‘Top Level Domain’ (TLD) - .af - to active status. In 2003, with approval from the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Afghanistan's transitional government assumed technical and legal control of the .af domain for Afghan websites and E-mail addresses. An Afghanistan Network Information Centre (AFGNIC) has now been established by the Ministry to manage Afghan domain names, but at the time of writing the UNDP still serves as its technical partner, pending the time when Afghanistan is able to develop sufficient technical expertise and infrastructure to take over this responsibility itself.

The UNDP has also played an important role in educating Afghans about the Internet. It has helped establish ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) training centres in 10 major provincial centres, offering training to civil servants as well as private citizens, with a special emphasis on women. It has also co-operated with the Ministry of Communications in setting up 12 telekiosks in Kabul where members of the public can access the Internet.

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