Afghanistan GSM License Extended

Afghan Wireless has been formally awarded a national GSM Mobile Wireless Service License by the Ministry of Communications of the Transitional Islamic Government of Afghanistan. The license will be signed by officials from the Ministry and Afghan Wireless in a ceremony on July 10 at the Ministry Offices in downtown Kabul.

The new license replaces an interim mobile services authorization under which Afghan Wireless has been providing service since April 2002. Afghan Wireless is authorized under the new license to provide national GSM mobile services for a period of 15 years. As part of the license agreement, Afghan Wireless has paid the Ministry of Communications more than US$5 million in license and regulatory fees. In addition, Afghan Wireless has paid US$1.2 million, as part of a revenue-sharing agreement under the previous license.

Afghan Wireless is one of the fastest-growing wireless service companies in the world with more than 41,000 subscribers in four Afghan cities. The company began operations in Kabul in April 2002 and is continuously expanding its network coverage and capacity to meet overwhelming market demand. With just over 40,000 operating phone lines for a population estimated at 22 million, Afghanistan has one of the lowest phone penetration rates (ratio of phones to people) in the world.

Afghan Wireless is a subsidiary of Telephone Systems International (TSI), based in the USA."

Posted to the site on 10th July 2003