KABUL, Afghanistan-Afghanistan will this weekend have mobile competition when the country’s second GSM network launches July 27, according to a Reuters report.
Last month, Aga Khan Development Network, which is part of the consortium that owns the second mobile license in Afghanistan, said it would launch its GSM network four to six weeks after a test phase that began June 26. Monaco Telecom International, MCT Corp. and Alcatel Corp. also are part of the consortium.
Telecom Development Company Afghanistan Ltd. is the company that will offer the mobile services using the brand name Roshan, which means “light” in Dari and Pashto, the country’s two most widely spoken languages.
The network will initially cover the capital city of Kabul. The network then will be expanded to the cities of Herat, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad and Kunduz with an initial $55 million investment. Subsequent phases will raise the investment to $120 million during the next decade with coverage expanded to other cities.
The consortium initially won the license in October 2002.
Roshan will compete with Afghan Wireless Communications Company, owned by Telephone Systems International and the government, which currently operates the country’s only mobile network.
