Majority of telecom companies stated that security as most operators expansion strategy getting hampered, and shortage of skilled labor is mostly hampering their investment activities, other factors that are causing problems are listed below:
Problems and challenges faced by MNOs.
High tax structure
Lack of proper supervision
Deceptive advertisement by other MNOs
Illiterate customers to adopt new technological services Electricity shortage
High opex puts operators limited options Over regulation, barriers on entry
Outdated technology
Bureaucracy and discrimination by regulators Tariff regulation by ATRA
Problems and challenges faced by ISPs
Less support from government Prices of net cafes must be controlled
Government policy is not according to current market situation Unhealthy competition
10 percent BRT is too expensive on ISPs and unfair since 10 % is charged on both GSM and ISPs although GSM companies are providing variety of services
ISP services are not Secure as data can be viewed by foreigners No control on illegal sim boxes
Lack of professionalism in government agencies
Problems and challenges faced by users
Majority of surveyed individuals had problem with the prices, they declared calling prices both for national and international to be too expensive, furthermore, lack of signal and coverage in most areas and sudden disconnections.
Recommendations
Recommendations by MNOs, ISPs, and individual users are listed below respectively:
Recommendations by MNOs:
Equally implementation of rules, regulation on each company Coordination must be there among MNOs
Provide uniform technology opportunities to all operators Review telecom policy according to current market situation Bilateral service agreements
Regulators should control prices as same prices must be charged by every company Government should have proper control over MNOs, so that to get rid of fake
advertisements/deceiving people. Actuality of advertisement must be traced
Government must play its role so as to get rid of bureaucracy and corruption in telecom sector to better serve people
Government should encourage more investment and increase competitions among current companies
Spread awareness on usage of mobile and internet services, reduce rates and better facilitate people
Security must be provided to MNOs to get rid of signal problems during night time AISA must trace hiring of foreigners as it must be reduced day by day
Recommendation by ISPs:
Lots of effort is needed to advance ISP in the country as first of all current policy of ISP must be revised
Government should put more effort to ensure security of ISPs, this would re-enforce the investors to better improve industry
Install more towers in mountainous areas to have good signal and coverage even in remote areas
M-commerce, M-health-banking must be implemented in all organizations BRT tax must be reduced from 10 percent to 5-2 percent
Government should support both MNOs and ISPs equally, no ISPs can provide voice services, but MNOs provide ISP services which is considered unfair by companies
Commission by AISA to solve issues of investors, free of bureaucracy and corruption Ministry of telecom must control and supervise companies properly during probationary
AISA must supervise companies on yearly basis Spread awareness of using fiber backbone services Paving the path and protect via a standardized method
Recommendations by Telecom service users:
Companies must reduce Prices of both national and international calls. Calling charges must be per seconds
Offer different packages for different categories of people Quality of voice call must be improved
New companies must enter market with advanced technology as to provide better facilities
No sim card must be sold unless registered, moreover, sim card prices must be increased to get rid of teasing/bothering.
MNOs must increase their coverage and should start to operate in remote areas so as to cover all provinces
Products and services must be according to international standard
Must keep privacy, as no one should have access/view to others call history Provide quality services with reasonable prices, durability and reliability Fast connectivity
Good customer services
Proper utilization of tools and equipments government and companies Attention must be paid to DSL cables since it’s too weak.
License must be issued based on quality of company’s services Strict control must be there to ban immoral sites
Government should encourage more investment Improve services and get rid of fake advertisements
Conclusion
Telecom sector in one of the fastest growing sector of afghan economy, which added more revenue to the treasury of government as well as provided easy communication and created job opportunities of more than 100,000.
Mobile operators have dominated telecom industry, there are 5 active players most of them foreign owned businesses which has provided facilities to 88 percent of afghan population. Tough competition is going on among MNOs which has resulted in price reductions over past decade as every MNO is trying to get larger share of market by offering fewer prices. MNOs are free to set prices of products and services, ATRA is just interfering in interconnection rates.
It is concluded that market has saturated and there is no place for any other MNOs to enter the market. However, there are certain problems with current operators such as: high calling rates, disconnections, lack of signal and coverage, but still people are satisfied with their network and sometime use more than one sims to reduce the possibilities of these problems. More work is needed in MNOs to bring their products and services according to international level. CDMA is almost failed in Afghanistan as majority of surveyed individuals said that Mobile networks are good as compared to CDMA.
The other important area of telecom is ISPs, currently there are 49 ISPs operating mostly in Kabul and other major provinces of the county. Currently prices of internet is considered to be too expensive by surveyed individuals soon by completion of fiber optic project internet accessibility of internet would be increased with reduced prices.
Survey results show that in Afghanistan youths mostly use mobile and internet services, while landline is mostly used by offices and houses respectively. Previously, internet prices were too expensive but by the passage of time it has reduced and as per necessities internet must be accessible to all people at reasonable prices so that everyone could avail internet facilities.
Market is not saturated, there is place for new businesses with large investment to enter market as currently only 20 percent of afghan population has access to internet. Higher demand for internet requires more investment in this sector, regulators should give license to those who could provide quality services and dissolve license of those who can’t compete. Discrimination is a big problem that some of companies are facing and stated that it’s a big hurdle in development of this sector.
Users faced problems of high cost, weak or no coverage, poor customer service, and low speed are the problems they mostly face.