The issue of a tender for augmenting mobile number portability (MNP), slated for mid next year has been announced by Afghanistan’s Telecom Regulatory Authority (ATRA).

The ATRA is known to be on the lookout for an international expert advisor who would provide technical assistance in formulating the MNP approach by way of which a request for proposals (RFP) will be issued for a systems house, eventually to implement and operate a MNP third party service; come, middle of next year.

Amirzai Sangin, the Afghan minister of communications had stated on 17 May, 2011 that the country would usher in mobile number portability in a bid to foster competition in the mobile market amongst the five mobile service networks across the country.

According to what Sangin had said, the growth and vitality of the telecommunications sector in Afghanistan was one of the most remarkable success stories of the recent past. Since 2003, when the first two licenses were issued for GSM mobile services, mobile telephone subscribers had increased from zero to 17 million subscribers. More than $1.6 billion had been invested in modern infrastructure, services crossing over 80% of the population and sustaining over 100,000 jobs across the nation.

­The issue of a tender for 3G and 4G licenses has been announced by the government of Afghanistan, slated for next month. Certain aspects of auctioning will be witnessed at the issue of the licenses; the current GSM operators will be allowed to acquire a similar license at the same price offered by the new operator.

The date for issuing the 3G/4G tender package is fixed for 1 August 2011.

As per sources, Roshan, MTN, Etisalat, Afghan Wireless and Afghan Telecom constitute the incumbent five licensed mobile network operators in the Afghanistan with market shares of 28.5%, 24.5%, 24.3%, 22% and 1% respectively.

According to Eng Amirzai Sangin Minister of (MCIT), the growth and vitality of the telecommunications sector in Afghanistan is one of the most remarkable success stories in its recent past. In addition, there has been an increase from zero to 17 million subscribers in mobile telephone subscribers ever since the first two licenses for GSM mobile services were issued. In terms of investment, this sector has absorbed $1.6 billion for augmenting modern infrastructure; services now have reached out to over 80% of the population to sustain over 100,000 jobs nationwide.

­The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) is a member of the World Bank Group. MTNA, MTN’s Afghanistan subsidiary is to receive political risk insurance from the MIGA, in order to propagate its operations in the country.

Previously, MTN’s operations in Afghanistan had received $74.5 million in the year 2007 to kick off operations. The current grant, amounting to $82.1 million doled out to the parent company MTN Dubai (MTND) by the MIGA is supposed to secure the operator’s equity investment and shareholder loan with regard to risks of transfer restriction and expropriation that will cover a time span of 10 years.

Currently, there are four operators doing business in Afghanistan. It has been observed that there has been an increase by seven times as regards the country’s mobile network in the last five years, representing 47% penetration. By the year 2014, the overall figure for mobile subscribers in the country is expected to cross over 18 million. MTN is attributed with a considerable contribution with regard to the growing network coverage it Afghanistan, especially the far corners of the country. At the moment, MTN connects by way of telecommunications services 31 of the country’s 34 provinces.

Enhancing mobile telecommunications infrastructure, expanding geographical coverage, in addition to improving quality of mobile services is touted to be the main focus of MTN Afghanistan’s investment.

MTN Afghanistan has chosen Aircom International, a network planning and optimization consultancy to perform an audit of its mobile network.

Aircom will inspect MTN Afghanistan’s network performance and optimization, assessing its radio access network, transmission network, circuit switching core, billing system and packet switching core.

Aircom will explore whether areas of MTN Afghanistan’s network are over or under-dimensioned, scrutinise transmission and RAN quality of service, complete a full review of RF design and maximize use of spectrum.

Aircom will be able to identify the bottlenecks affecting network performance, where routing can be improved, and where additional capacity may be needed. This will reduce dropped call rates, improve areas of low signal strength, especially indoors and check that roaming revenues are captured.

By undergoing this audit followed by a network redesign, MTN Afghanistan will enhance the quality of network coverage for its subscribers.

The Central Bank of Afghanistan has issued Afghanistan’s electronic money institution (EMI) licence to operator Roshan’s M-Paisa, a mobile money transfer service.

M-Paisa operates under a Money Service Provider (MSP) licence since introducing the service in 2008.

The EMI licensing process was introduced to better serve mobile money services in Afghanistan. In effect, the EMI licence will complement the existing MSP licence in setting the standard for mobile money service providers in Afghanistan, and enable customers, agents and partners are further protected.