dialog.tj reported on April16 that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of Afghanistan on April 13 announced a 30-prcent reduction in Internet prices.
The Minister of Communications and Information Technologies, Shahzad Aryobee, reportedly noted that Salaam Network had the price of Internet from 70 afghani (equivalent to 8.49 somoni) to 49 afghani (equivalent to 5.94 somoni) per gigabyte (GB).
“Taking into consideration that provider companies and Internet companies offer discounts and reduce prices, we are ready to provide a 50-percent discount to provider companies and Internet companies through Afghan Telecom,” the minister was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, amid growing customer complaints on social media, Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority (ATRA) on March 30 cited insecurity, lack of electricity and landlockedness as reasons for higher prices of internet in the country, according to 1TV (Afghan privately owned commercial television channel).
Addressing complaints over automatic activation of value-added services, ATRA chief Najibullah Azizi reportedly said that henceforth no company could activate the services without the customer’s approval.
He said that calls to ATRA for lodging complaints have become free. He also said that telecom companies have increased number of free calls from customers to 20 calls per month.
He said that some telecom companies have reduced price of internet outside packages from 10 afghani to one afghani per MB.
On slow internet speed, Azizi said that telecom companies have promised to change their frequencies to address the problem.
He said that the authority had fined five companies 250 million afghani over the last three years, collecting 90 percent of it. He warned that companies failing to improve their services would face new fines.
On selling of unregistered SIM cards, Azizi said that 200,000 of such SIM cards have been seized so far. He cited lack of electronic ID cards as a reason for the problem.
