Roshan: Cell Phone Power in Afghanistan

Afghanistan has been at war in some form or another for the past 23 years. But there's a ray of light. "Roshan" means "light" in Afghanistan's two most popular languages. It is also, by no coincidence, the name of the country's leading cellular provider. If you believe communications can improve and change people's lives, and you believe in the power of a war-torn country to bootstrap itself into the modern world, then you'll love the Roshan story.

I had the opportunity to listen to Karim Khoja, Roshan's CEO, speak at the annual awards presentation of the Radio Club of America. For most of us, awards banquets are usually a business obligation and not a lift for the spirits, but this time was different.

If you think about how difficult it might be to become a cellular carrier in the United States, think for a moment about running a business in Kabul. Let's just say it's a bit more dangerous and complicated. There are curfews imposed. There's in-fighting among various ethnic groups. When Roshan started there was no real banking in the country and the government demanded, and still demands, high taxes from its businesses.

The country's population? Not exactly ripe for high technology, either. The life expectancy of an Afghani citizen is 41 years. Two of every five children don't make it through childhood. And the average yearly income is $300.

Khoja told the audience that three and half years ago, before Roshan, an Afghani might have to walk 900 miles to make a landline or satellite call. Cell phones did not exist. A call cost about $12 a minute, and the country had a scrap heap of old infrastructure with few landlines and ancient switching equipment.

Business conditions were less than favorable, to put it mildly. Installing fiber in the ground could surely mean encountering buried land mines. No insurance company would offer policies, either. As the company was built, Roshan needed to send armed guards along with every cell tower, and good engineers needed to be trained and educated because they simply did not exist. "If you showed up and you could read," says Khoja, "well, then you met the qualifications to be an engineer."

Despite the obstacles, today Roshan has more than 1 million subscribers. They pay five cents per minute (off peak) to talk on their pre-paid cell phones (collecting monthly bills is too hard in a country with virtually no postal service). A GSM phone costs $50. Soon Afghani subscribers will be able to bank over their phones, do SMS messaging, and have BlackBerry service. Today there's an 8-percent penetration of wireless cell phone service in the country, up from 0.02 percent just a few years ago.

Besides bringing connectivity, Roshan has brought jobs to Afghanistan. Afghanis can become licensed operators of Public Call Offices. The company employs nearly 800 people; 75 percent of them are Afghani citizens and 20 percent are women. It has created nearly 1,500 jobs across the country.

Roshan has garnered many awards for creating a world-class sustainable communications company in a war-torn country. It provides many socially responsible programs, such as free food for Afghani children and a telemedicine program that links doctors in Afghanistan to doctors in other countries when they need expert advice and collaboration. Khoja says he hopes that if people can speak, they will not fight. "Nasdik Shodan" is the company's slogan. It means "bringing you closer," and it's a perfect sentiment about the hope of the power of communications.