Roshan Deal to Lease Capacity on Afghan Telecom Network

Afghanistan based mobile network operator, Roshan has signed a deal with Afghan Telecom to access its National  Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) Backbone Ring Network. The OFC, constructed by Afghan Telecom, will complement Roshan's existing infrastructure, enabling Roshan to ensure the redundancy of its network and provide additional capacity for its growing number of subscribers.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and Afghan Telecom commenced the construction of the OFC Backbone Project in April 2007, and when finished will link up 68 cities within the country.

"This is an important milestone for the development of Afghanistan and the telecommunications industry. We are extremely pleased that Roshan is the first GSM operator to be entering into a commercial partnership with Afghan Telecom for fiber capacity," said His Excellency Amirzai Sangin, Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

Roshan is the first GSM operator in Afghanistan to utilize the OFC. Afghan Telecom under its social obligation will ensure that OFC capacity and bandwidth is also available to other companies and organizations operating in Afghanistan.

"We declared our interest in, and support for, the OFC project over four years ago and we are proud to be able to express our long term commitment to Afghanistan by being Afghan Telecom's first major anchor tenant. We believe that this project can have a significant impact on the information and telecommunications sector in Afghanistan, ensuring the availability of competitively priced capacity and infrastructure to meet the growing needs of the industry. We look forward to strengthening our relationship and cooperation with AT in the years to come," said Karim Khoja, chief executive officer, Roshan.

Posted to the site on 6th July 2009