Mobile, internet services restored in Afghanistan after two-day blackout

KABUL: Mobile phone service and internet were restored across the country on Wednesday evening after a two-day complete blackout in Afghanistan.

The Taliban government shut down telecommunications across the country without prior notice on Monday night, freezing businesses, educational activities, and public communication.

According to reports, signals and Wi-Fi have been restored in Kabul, Kandahar, Khost, Ghazni, and Herat.

People took to the streets in large numbers to celebrate the return of the internet, honking car horns, buying sweets and balloons, and expressing joy.

Residents said that “the city has come back to life”.

This is the first time that the Taliban government has suspended telecommunications across the country since 2021. Internet monitoring company Netblocks said that the blackout was the result of “deliberate disconnection”.

The United Nations had called the shutdown tantamount to cutting off Afghanistan from the world and demanded its immediate restoration.

Afghanistan Internet Ban

Earlier, Afghanistan faced a second day without internet and mobile phone service on Tuesday, after Taliban authorities cut the fibre optic network.

The government began shutting down high-speed internet connections to some provinces earlier in the month to prevent “vice” on the orders of Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

On Monday night, mobile phone signal and internet service gradually weakened nationwide until connectivity was less than one per cent of ordinary levels, according to internet watchdog NetBlocks.

It is the first time since the Taliban government won its insurgency in 2021 and imposed Sharia law that communications have been shut down in the country.

“We are blind without phones and the internet,” said 42-year-old shopkeeper Najibullah in Kabul.

“All our business relies on mobiles. The deliveries are with mobiles. It’s like a holiday, everyone is at home. The market is totally frozen.”

In the minutes before it happened, a government official warned AFP that the fibre optic network would be cut, affecting mobile phone services too.

“Eight to nine thousand telecommunications pillars” would be shut down, he said, adding that the blackout would last “until further notice”.

“There isn’t any other way or system to communicate … the banking sector, customs, everything across the country will be affected,” said the official who asked not to be named.

The Taliban leader reportedly ignored warnings from some officials earlier this month about the economic fallout of cutting the internet and ordered authorities to press ahead with a nationwide ban.