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An international consortium began testing a new cellular network in the Afghan capital on Thursday and will soon launch commercial services that will break a telecommunications monopoly. Telecom Development Company Afghanistan Ltd., an Afghan company owned by several international investors, made the announcement in Kabul after Afghan Communications Minister Masoom Stanekzai made the first call on the network. 'This telephone call is an important one because it symbolizes what is being done to help this country,' Stanekzai said.

Afghanistan is to get a second mobile phone service within weeks.The Telecom Development Company of Afghanistan (TDCA) officially launched Roshan - which means 'light' in Pashto - on Thursday.
The new GSM network will now undergo tests for the next four to six weeks before its commercial launch.
The firm says it will roll out its service in Kabul and the main cities of Herat, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad and Kunduz by the end of the year, at a cost of about $55m (

An international consortium lead by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development has begun testing its GSM network in Kabul, Afghanistan. This is the country's second commercial GSM network, although a third license award has been claimed by Ariana Telecom which has yet to start building an infrastructure. There is also a GSM network in Kabul operated by Ericsson for the UN forces in the city. Telecom Development Company Afghanistan (TDCA), is owned by a consortium in which the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development holds 51%, Monaco Telecom International 35% and MCT Corp. 9%.

The government will consider opening up of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Northern Areas to mobile phone operators. This was stated by Information Technology Minister Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari at a forum on development of telecom services in rural areas, organized by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) at a local hotel on Wednesday. 'I do not consider opening up of the AJK to cellular phone companies will pose any security threat,' he said.