Second (or Third ?) GSM License Awarded in Afghanistan

A consortium led by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) and comprising Monaco Telecom International, U.S.-based MCT Corp. and Alcatel says that it has been awarded Afghanistan's second GSM license. The award of the tender to AKFED will now proceed for ratification by the Council of Ministers chaired by President Hamid Karzai.

Interestingly - Ariana Telecom claimed back in March that it had been awarded the country's second GSM license and said that it was in negotiations with networks over a joint venture. Nothing has been heard from them since. TSI holds the country's first GSM license and there is also a temporary network in Kabul operated by the UN for their needs.

Initially targeted at six main cities, the "Aga Khan" network Kabul, Herat, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad and Kunduz, the phased initiative, entailing an initial investment of US$55 million, is expected to expand its network to other cities over the next four to five years. Subsequent phases will raise investment in the GSM network to US$120 million over the coming decade. AKFED will hold 51% of the equity in the operating company, MTI, 35% and MCT, 9%. Alcatel will have a 5% participation in the company and also provide financing for technical equipment.

AKFED expects its involvement in the telecommunications sector to complement and strengthen various development initiatives that have been launched by the Aga Khan Development Network in Afghanistan since the beginning of this year. These range from expansion of rural development and the rehabilitation of infrastructure to microfinance, upgrading educational and healthcare capacity and the revitalisation of cultural spaces of historic importance with a view to improving urban development.

AKFED is the economic development arm of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), a group of private, non-denominational development agencies seeking to improve opportunities and living conditions in specific regions of the developing world, especially Africa and Asia. Present in Central Asia since 1995, AKFED is also involved in the microcredit and financial services sectors in Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic. Active in the fields of industry, financial services, tourism development and infrastructure in eighteen countries across South and Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, AKFED operates as a network of affiliates with more than 90 separate project companies employing over 15,000 people and controlling assets in excess of US$1.5 billion.'"

Posted to the site on 8th October 2002