Kabul Calling

Like strange hooded aliens, sparkling yellow telephone stands have sprouted in Kabul's dilapidated streets, drawing curious looks and hesitant attempts to use them.

“Brother, how can I drop the coin in the phone?” a young man asked Jamaluddin as he left his work at the education ministry.

Jamaluddin explained that the new phones accepted pre-paid cards rather than coins.

Standing slightly taller than a man, the 300 new phones - comprising a central pillar and a cobra-like plastic shelter for the handset - bring a touch of progress to this city of more than three million people.

Half the phones are spread through the capital's streets, while the other 150 have been set up in ministries, public hospitals and police precincts for public use.

The phones, which went into service on August 11, have brought renewed hope of a way to communicate for the capital's countless poor, who cannot afford mobile phones or the more expensive Public Call Offices, PCOs.

Afghanistan got its first coin-operated public telephones in 1973. At that time, a call needed a single one-afghani coin fed into a slot. In addition to Kabul, the phones were installed in Herat, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif.

But like so many other public services, the phone system fell into disrepair after the collapse of the communist regime in 1992 and in the subsequent fighting between rival mujahedin groups that devastated Kabul .

Now an Afghan-American company called Afghan Pooshesh (Afghan Coverage) has set up the network of public phones at a cost of 180,000 US dollars. The money has come from the communications ministry, which has signed an installation and one-year maintenance contract with the company.

The booths came from neighbouring Iran, with the handsets coming from Pakistan, said Pirouz Hamidian-Rad, the Iranian-American who is company president.

“The call cards were designed in Iran based on the recommendations of the Afghan-Pooshesh Company, and are sold in one, two, five, 10 and 20 dollar denominations in Afghan markets,” he said.

According to Hamidian-Rad, a call within Kabul costs five cents a minute, calls to the provinces cost nine cents and overseas calls range between 18 and 22 cents a minute. The income from the call cards goes to the ministry.

The company official sees the contract as a means of getting a foot in the door inside Afghanistan. "As this is our firm's first project [here], it will not benefit us materially but we have the privilege of having the company's name on the handsets and on the call cards," said Hamidian-Rad.

The deputy minister for telecommunications, Engineer Hassam Baryali, told IWPR, “Since not all Afghans can afford digital or mobile phones, we launched this project to resolve their problems.”

Besides extending the network within Kabul, Baryali said similar phone units were planned for other provinces, such as Herat, Kandahar and Balkh.

Outside the education ministry, at one of the two phones in the street, 22-year-old Abdul Saboor was surrounded by curious friends as he made a call.

“Though these phones are few in number, they have solved the problems of half of Kabul's residents,” he said happily.

The main private mobile phone networks, Roshan and the Afghan Wireless Communication Company, AWCC, don't see the newcomer having a major impact on their business.

“Every company wants to provide its customers with good services and prices. We are ready to compete with our rivals and these rivalries will benefit the people,” said Hasib Hashemi, a senior official at AWCC.

Education ministry employee Jamaluddin thinks the new phones will help bring down mobile costs. "If the number of these phone stands increases, AWCC and Roshan will have to sell their SIM cards and top-up cards more cheaply,” he said.

Shopkeeper Abdul Hadi is delighted that a phone has been installed close to his home. "It's very good for people who can’t afford to buy a mobile," he said.

Until the arrival of the street phones, Kabulis without a mobile did have the option of using the PCOs, which were equipped with mobiles and digital phones. Calls there are timed and a flat rate per minute charged according to destination.

Abdul Salam, 22, who has been running a PCO in Kabul for two years and makes six dollars a day, fears for his future. “The phone stands have only just started functioning and haven't had any impact on our business yet. But they will definitely affect our business in the future,” he said.

Mohammad Jawad Sharifzada is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.