Calling 011 + 93 +...

This appears in the Globe and Mail's Report on Business (B7); pity that it's not in the main news section where a lot more readers might see it and get some appreciation of what really is going on in much of Afstan:

Cellphones transforming Afghan life

About 150,000 people subscribe to cellphone service each month in Afghanistan and there's "no end in sight" to the growth, the country's Communications Minister said yesterday.

Speaking after the launch of the nation's fourth cellphone service provider, Amirzai Sangin predicted the telecommunication and information technology sector would "be the engine of growth for Afghanistan."

Afghanistan's economy is growing quickly, due mostly to the infusion of foreign aid since the downfall of the Taliban in 2001. But the country's living standards are among the lowest in the world and it faces mounting security problems.

Its economy is predominantly rural, and trade and industry are badly hampered by crumbling roads and chronic electricity shortages. Not including the illicit trade in opium, the nation's few exports include dried fruit and carpets.

But like in other developing nations, cellphone service providers have been doing brisk business, bringing communication to poor villagers who until four years rarely, if ever, used a telephone.

"In Afghanistan, the majority of our people will be connected through mobile phones," Mr. Sangin said. "...We have gone straight into the age of personal communication."

Calling rates are currently about 10 cents a minute, with the cheapest phone cards on sale for the equivalent of $1. Coverage is generally available in all the country's 34 provinces.

Mr. Sangin said the country's telecommunications and IT sector employed about 50,000 people and was crucial to opening opportunities for trade between districts as well as other countries.

So far, 12 per cent of Afghanistan's 25 million people have cellphones [emphasis added].

Yesterday, Emirates Telecommunication Corp., or Etisalat, became the fourth service provider to compete in the Afghan market. The United Arab Emirates company said it had invested $300-million to set up service.

Salem Al Kendi, Etisalat's Afghan chief executive officer, predicted brisk growth in Afghanistan and said the company hoped to move into other countries in the region.