The Afghan Phone System (Summer, 2002) -------------------------------------- By Iconoclast If you are a curious phreak like me, the telecommunications infrastructure of Afghanistan immediately comes to mind as something that deserves exploration and understanding. Alas, the lack of said infrastructure leads me to say that it is quite possibly the worst place to try to make a phone call from on the entire planet. We take our precious lovely dial tone for granted, but there you will be hard pressed to even find a working telephone. To begin with, let's take a look at the numbering formats for the country. Country codes are assigned by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) (www.itu.int). The International Country Code (ICC) for Afghanistan is 93. The "9" signifies it is in geographical region 9 of the world. The United States has an ICC of 1. From within Afghanistan, to place an international call you would dial the International Direct Dial (IDD) code, which is 00. To place a call within the country you would prefix it with the National Direct Dial (NDD) code, which is simply 0. There are no city codes or area codes in the country on the old electromechanical exchanges. Numbers within the various cities are five digits long. An excellent directory of people to call in Afghanistan was listed by the Afghan Wireless Communications Company (AWCC) but was recently removed. Hopefully, they will restore this information. Telephone usage is actually dropping, since in 1996 there were 29,000 lines available and in 1998 there were only 21,000 lines. Of course, Taliban bans on Internet use didn't exactly spur telecom growth. My sources in the CIA have stated that "in 1997, telecommunications links were established between Mazar-e Sharif, Herat, Kandahar, Jalalabad, and Kabul through satellite and microwave systems" (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/ factbook/index.html). Two telecommunications companies from China, Zhongxing Telecom and Huawei Technologies, were attempting to install a switching network that could handle 130,000 lines in the capital city of Kabul. The status of this project is unknown at the current time. Most of the existing exchanges are based on electromechanical switches that are 40 years old. These old exchanges are using Siemens Strowger switches. Completing calls on these exchanges is very difficult. New equipment using digital switches is being installed. In order to place calls to the older switches, one must have the operator service in Kabul complete the call for you. You can reach the operator service by dialing +93-2-290090. Then give them a five digit phone number and the call may have a slight chance of being completed. Parts of the country have digital exchanges, which can be dialed directly without the operator. The various city codes are: 02 Kabul, 03 Kandahar, 04 Herat, 05 Mazar-i-Sherif, 06 Kunduz, 07 Jalalabad, and 08 AWCC Mobile Telephone Network. Regarding international telecommunications links, this is primarily done through satellite communications. A company called Telephone Systems International S.A. provides international connectivity. According to Afghan Wireless, there are satellite earth stations one Intelsat (Indian Ocean) linked only to Iran and one Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region), as well as a commercial satellite telephone center in Ghazni. This New York City based company unveiled a brand new GSM phone network in Afghanistan in May, 2002. Chairman Hamid Karzai was the first person to place a telephone call over it. This has actually been the fastest GSM installation in a developing country. There are two different kinds of phone cards planned for sale. One is called a "Fixed Line Phone Card," the other is a "Mobile Top Up." To use the Fixed Line Phone Card, one would dial 81 from within the country, listen to the instructions, and then enter the PIN as printed on the back of the card. The destination party number is then dialed. If a mistake in dialing is made or one wants to make an additional call, then "##" is entered followed by the number. The Mobile Top Up card adds funds to a GSM account. The number 171 is dialed from within the country, the PIN is entered as printed on the back of the card, and the account is automatically credited. Of course, by now you probably just want to "reach out and touch someone" over there in Afghanistan. Why not give Osama a call? He uses an INMARSAT satellite phone, although lately has not been picking up when I call him for some reason (I wonder why?!). To call Osama Bin Laden just dial +873-682-505-331. Have phun!