Article on Roshan Telecommunication

By Mark Bendeich

KABUL, June 12 (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s largest mobile-phone company is only four years’ old and has just made its first annual profit, but there are still teething problems.

Its field staff have to be wary of kidnappings and landmines, a sub-contractor was recently beheaded, Taliban militia have reportedly threatened to destroy its communications towers — and most of its 1.3 million customers cannot read or write.

Apart from that, business is good for Telecom Development Company Afghanistan Ltd, better known as Roshan, at the dangerous front line of the mobile-phone industry, according to its smooth-talking British chief operating officer.

“Fortunately we have not had anyone (among Roshan staff) lost or killed, though 18 months ago a sub-contractor was killed but it was someone who did not follow any security rules,” said Altaf Ladak, dressed crisply in a dark suit and tie.

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But for the first time, mobile phones are threatening to outnumber guns on the streets of Afghanistan.

Only 8 percent of Afghans own a mobile phone but the market is growing at around 100,000 new customers a month, says Roshan, which means “Light” in the local Dari language.

“It’s the fastest growing market in the world today in terms of penetration,” Ladak said after giving a guided tour of Roshan’s flagship Kabul store.

Freshly painted, the store looks on the inside like a mobile phone shop anywhere else in the world, except it has an armed guard and a sign over its main gate depicting an AK-47 with a red cross through it. “No entry with weapons,” it warns.

Complete at the Source