{"id":87242,"date":"2025-09-30T15:58:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T10:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=87242"},"modified":"2025-09-30T15:58:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T10:58:52","slug":"taliban-internet-cut-sparks-afghanistan-telecoms-blackout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/world\/taliban-internet-cut-sparks-afghanistan-telecoms-blackout\/","title":{"rendered":"Taliban internet cut sparks Afghanistan telecoms blackout"},"content":{"rendered":"

KABUL: Afghanistan faced a second day without internet<\/a> and mobile phone service on Tuesday, after Taliban authorities cut the fibre optic network.<\/p>\n

The government began shutting down high-speed internet connections to some provinces earlier in the month to prevent \u201cvice\u201d on the orders of Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are blind without phones and the internet,\u201d said 42-year-old shopkeeper Najibullah in Kabul.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll our business relies on mobiles. The deliveries are with mobiles. It\u2019s like a holiday, everyone is at home. The market is totally frozen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cEight to nine thousand telecommunications pillars\u201d would be shut down, he said, adding that the blackout would last \u201cuntil further notice\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t any other way or system to communicate \u2026 the banking sector, customs, everything across the country will be affected,\u201d said the official who asked not to be named.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Radio communications<\/h2>\n

Diplomatic sources told AFP on Tuesday that mobile networks were mostly shut down.<\/p>\n

A UN source, meanwhile, said \u201coperations are severely impacted, falling back to radio communications and limited satellite links\u201d.<\/p>\n

Telephone services are often routed over the internet, sharing the same fibre optic lines, especially in countries with limited telecoms infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Over the past weeks, internet connections have been extremely slow or intermittent.<\/p>\n

On September 16, Balkh provincial spokesman Attaullah Zaid said the ban had come from the Taliban leader\u2019s orders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis measure was taken to prevent vice, and alternative options will be put in place across the country to meet connectivity needs,\u201d he wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

At the time, AFP correspondents reported the same restrictions in the northern provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar, as well as in Kandahar, Helmand, Nangarhar, and Uruzgan in the south.<\/p>\n

Netblocks, a watchdog organisation that monitors cybersecurity and internet governance, said the blackout \u201cappears consistent with the intentional disconnection of service\u201d.<\/p>\n

AFP lost all contact with its bureau in the capital Kabul at around 5:45 pm (6:15 pm PKT) on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the shutdown, I\u2019m totally disconnected with my family in Kabul,\u201d a 40-year-old Afghan living in Oman told AFP via text message, asking not to be named.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening, I\u2019m really worried.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024, Kabul had touted the 9,350 kilometre fibre optic network, largely built by former US-backed governments, as a \u201cpriority\u201d to bring the country closer to the rest of the world and lift it out of poverty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KABUL: 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 \u201cvice\u201d on the orders of Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. On Monday night, mobile phone signal and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":87243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[389,31442],"class_list":["post-87242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-afghanistan","tag-afghanistan-internet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87242"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87246,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87242\/revisions\/87246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}