Kabul, Afghanistan – Afghanistan witnessed a second day without communications and Internet service on Tuesday, after Taliban authorities cut off the fiber optic network.
Taliban authorities began cutting off communications and the Internet in some states earlier this month to prevent “vice”.
On Monday night, mobile phone signal and internet service gradually weakened until the overall national connectivity ratio was less than 1 percent (of normal levels).
Which makes it a complete outage.
This is the first time that communications have been cut off since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and imposed strict laws.
Minutes before internet and communications service was cut off, a government source told AFP that the outage would continue “until further notice”.
“The service will be cut off, it will happen gradually tonight, there are between eight and nine thousand communications poles that will be cut off,” he said.
He stressed: “There is no other means or system for communication.” The banking sector, customs and everything across the country will be affected.”
Intentional dismissal of service
NetBlocks said that “a comprehensive severance of communications service has begun nationwide”, noting that the incident “corresponds to a deliberate separation of service”.
The Taliban leader reportedly ignored warnings from some officials earlier this month about the economic repercussions of cutting off the Internet, and ordered authorities to move forward with a comprehensive nationwide ban.
Sources told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday that most mobile phone networks are down.
In addition, a source at the United Nations said, “Operations were severely affected, and have returned to limited wireless communications and satellite links”.
Telephone services are often passed over the Internet, using the same fiber lines, especially in countries that lack a strong communications infrastructure.
Over the past few weeks, Internet connections have been very slow or intermittent.
On September 16, the spokesman for Balkh Province (north), Atallah Zaid, announced a complete ban on the Internet via fiber optics.
In addition to separating the network by order of the Taliban’s Supreme Leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada.
“This action has been taken to combat vice, and alternative options will be made available across the country to meet communication needs,” he wrote on social media.
AFP correspondents reported at the time that the same restrictions were being imposed in the northern provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar, as well as in Kandahar, Helmand, Nangarhar and Uruzgan in the south.
