Afghan Wireless to Unroll 3G ServiceAfghan Wireless to Unroll 3G Service

•The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in Afghanistan announced on March 19, 2014, that Afghan Wireless had been awarded the fifth 3G service delivery license in the country. The advent of 3G mobile networks in Afghanistan will mean that high-speed Internet will become more readily available to citizens. 3G network architecture offers numerous improvements over previous generations of mobile technology. Estimates of 3G service speeds vary, but even at the low end of 144 kilobits per second, they outpace the performance of dial-up Internet connections. At the high end, they even rival the speeds of land-based technologies like cable modems, with data transfer rates reaching as high as 14.4 megabits per second.

•The switch from 2G to 3G technology poses technical challenges for the countries that undertake it, with different radio transmission frequencies requiring the installation of new infrastructure. In addition to faster upload and download speeds, however, 3G technology provides users with better accessibility options. In Afghanistan, its rollout is expected to improve Internet and telecommunications service. Four out of five Afghans are expected to acquire Internet service by March 2015.