Afghan Telecom Facilities Fragile
By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
After Korean hostages abducted in Afghanistan in mid-July reported to media outlets, the attention is now narrowing in on the telecom facilities of the Middle East country.
According to the government data, the hostages are estimated to be on the line through mobile telephony services rather than fixed-line telecom pipelines.
The Web site of the Ministry of Communication (www.moc.gov.af) of Afghanistan shows the nation's total landline telecom subscribers stands at just 280,000.
In particular, the number of fixed-line customers amounts to merely 5,000 in Ghanzi Province as of 2005, where the 23 Koreans were kidnapped.
The wireless user pool functions better with about 780,000 people subscribed to a pair of local operators there _ 260,000 for AWCC and 523,000 for Roshan _ as of 2005.
This means approximately 3 percent of the nation's total 25 million population carry cellular phones based on the global system for mobile communications (GSM).
GSM is one of the two mobile telephony-enabling platforms along with code division multiple access (CDMA). The former is more widely used than the latter.
The possibility is that the Taliban insurgents, the hard-line militia that took the hostages, have mobile phones and connected some of the Koreans to news outlets.
JoongAng Ilbo, a Korean daily that had an interview with a female hostage early this week, refused to confirm whether they contacted with her through the mobile network or not.
However, experts in Seoul assumed that the Taliban preferred mobile phones because they are constantly on the move. Furthermore, wireless facilities are more readily available.
In fact, the Taliban knows the importance of the mobile networks and in some provinces the anti-U.S. guerilla is practically controlling base stations.