[Boot Hill]

“They have sophisticated satellite phones which enable them to use Iranian land phone lines to log on to the internet.”

Nek Mohammed stands as an eternal monument to the ill-founded belief that their sat phone communications are secure.

--Boot Hill

[AdmSmith]

A few years ago Afghanistan only had a satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) linked only to Iran and 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region) + a commercial satellite telephone center in Ghazni.

Thus the use of Iranian terrestrial network.

pick your gear: http://store.ustronics.us/bthursatphon.html

They have 2 GSM operators and in August 2003 "Kabul passed a key milestone: in any given day, more mobile calls are made in the Afghan capital than in downtown Manhattan" according to this http://www.benhammersley.com/reportage/afghanistan_august_2003.html