[HCRA] FW: [VWS] FW: Morse lives on but only for a moment

[Daniel Sullivan]

Check out the 3rd paragraph.

Dan Sullivan
KO1D


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http://www.economist.com/diversions/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6956187



Afghanistan

Dial M for mujahideen

May 20th 2006 | KABUL
>From The Economist print edition



The country goes phone-crazy



JUST as the first meagre signs of normal life have begun to return to
Afghanistan, the country erupted into some of the heaviest fighting since
the American-led invasion in 2001. Some 60 people were killed as Taliban
fighters battled with police and soldiers in Helmand province where
thousands of British troops are now deployed. Meanwhile, the first street
signs have begun to appear in the capital-a first small step towards the
establishment of a functional communications network. But it is in
telecommunications that Afghanistan has advanced most.

When the Taliban fell, there were just 20,000 telephone lines in the country
and no means to phone abroad. Today there are 1.3m mobile phone users taking
advantage of mobile coverage that stretches to many rural areas. Last month,
delegates from across Afghanistan gathered in Kabul for a conference on
information and communications technology to discuss, among other
developments, the construction of a new optical-fibre voice-and-data network
which will follow the ring road that girdles the country and finally connect
it to the outside world.

The advance in technology will be enormous, just how enormous being
demonstrated by the fact that the invitations to the conference were sent on
an ancient Morse telegraph system. It is currently the only fixed-line
connection between Kabul and all 34 provincial administrations. When binary
code replaces Morse, the old telegraph will at last become history.

The arrival of mobile phones has had a far-reaching impact, not only on
business, but also on the country's social fabric. In Kabul, mobiles have
revolutionised the previously minutely controlled contact between the sexes.
Even the Taliban have embraced the technology; they have at least two press
spokesmen and they have also put their mobiles to less constructive use as
the detonators for roadside bombs.

The Ministry of Communications is privatising the state's telecommunications
assets and has created Afghan Telecom, which may now start to reduce the
high cost of calls (around 15 cents a minute) offered by the still partly
state-owned Afghan Wireless and Roshan, which is owned by the Aga Khan. Two
other mobile players are due to enter the market in the coming year, having
paid $41m each for their licenses: a big sum in Afghanistan.

But how big is the market? Mobiles are a lifestyle accessory aspired to by
many Afghans and they can bring huge economic benefits to town and country
alike. But the absence of reliable power supplies in all but a couple of
cities will probably limit the take-up.

And while the government sings the praises of information technology, its
potential can be realised only if there is the software and expertise in
place in the provinces to take advantage of it. Young Kabulis are already
surfing the internet and signing up for online degree courses at Indian and
Pakistani universities. But the flow of Western pornography and popular
culture from the web is alarming the conservative-dominated Information and
Culture Committee in the new parliament. The parliament recently refused to
ratify the appointment of the information minister and wants his replacement
to be more of a traditionalist. That might spell an early end to
Afghanistan's techno-dreams.













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