5G base stations in containers in Afghanistan

In data collected between July 2022 and June 2024, China was reported to have had around 3.5 million 5G base stations installed across the country, with Chinese mobile operators investing heavily in 5G infrastructure. By comparison, the European Union had around 460,000 thousand base stations, while the United States had approximately 175,000.

There are now 5 mobile GSM operators competing in Afghanistan's telecom sector: Afghan Wireless (AWCC), Etisalat, MTN Group, Roshan and Salaam Network (Aftel). 2G/GSM is on 900 and 1800 MHz, 3G started 2012/3 on 2100 MHz and 4G/LTE services have started 2017 on Afghan Wireless on 1800 MHz (band 3) with other providers announcing it too.

To cover the same area as traditional cellular networks (2G, 3G, and 4G), the number of 5G base stations (BSs) could be tripled (Wang et al., 2014). Furthermore, Ge, Tu, Mao, Wang, and Han, (2016) suggested that to achieve seamless coverage services, the density of 5G BSs would reach 40-50 BSs/km 2.

Etisalat was the first mobile provider to launch 3G services and now has 3G coverage in 21 provinces of Afghanistan. They now provide voice and data services to approximately 3.5 million subscribers in 34 Afghan provinces and more than 200 districts supported by more than 12,000 retail outlets

Meanwhile 3G/4G subscriptions doubled from 2.6 million in June 2016 to 5.7 million at the end of March 2017. Afghan Wireless (AWCC) was Afghanistan's first mobile communications company today it has over 5 million subscribers.

Smart phones have become the preferred way for Afghans to access the Internet. Therefore despite all the challenges Afghanistan has a highly competitive mobile market that continues to flourish. The mobile sector has been boosted by the absence of effective fixed-line alternatives.