Afghan Wireless

In 1998, Afghan-American telecommunications entrepreneur Ehsan Bayat won an exclusive license from Afghanistan's Taliban government to create a joint venture with the country's Ministry of Communications,[1] which was given 20% ownership.[1][7] The deal had been negotiated by investors from the United States, Britain, and Sweden.[8] Afghan Wireless Communications Company, or AWCC, was established as a subsidiary of Telephone Systems International,[6] and financial backing was provided by the British entrepreneurs Stuart Bentham and Lord Michael Cecil.[1][9] In June 1999 the Taliban granted Afghan Wireless a 15-year monopoly on cell phone traffic in Afghanistan,[1] and within the year Afghan Wireless had re-enabled Afghanistan's international country calling code.[1] In 1999 and 2000[9] the company set up digital telephone exchanges in the cities of Kabul and Kandahar, replacing the outdated manual telephone switchboards that the country's telecommunications had long relied upon.[1][9]

Although the Taliban were overthrown by an American invasion in 2001,[10] Afghan Wireless was nevertheless the first company licensed to provide GSM wireless service in Afghanistan.[11] With the lifting of the trade embargo, Afghan Wireless brought in technology from American vendors including WorldCom, TECORE Wireless Systems, and AirNet Communications Corporation.[11] Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai publicly made the first phone call on April 6, 2002, calling and speaking with the Afghan ambassador to the United Nations in New York City. As the network went public using a pre-paid platform, phone booths were set up for those unable to afford cellphones.[11] In June 2002, Argent Networks in New Zealand was contracted to help Afghan Wireless develop its GSM mobile network. The following year Argent also developed a billing system for the network,[6] and competing companies such as Roshan started to appear.[7]

In 2002 Bayat allegedly attempted to buy out Cecil and Bentham, but the offers were disregarded as "derisory".[1] Bayat and Afghan Wireless subsequently sued Cecil and Bentham for allegedly misappropriating money from the company.[12][1] Cecil, Bentham, and two other founding investors counter-sued, claiming they had not received over £250 million in due shares and alleging "fraud, deceit, breach of contract and conspiracy".[12] The case was dismissed from American courts[13] and ultimately hidden from public records and dismissed in Bayat's favor in British courts[1][13] in August 2011.[14][1]

Starting around 2006, Afghan Wireless was one of five companies with towers damaged and destroyed by the Taliban,[7] with the Taliban demanding that telecommunications companies in the country limit service.[15] The attacks were reported stopped by 2009, with The Globe and Mail explaining that "public discontent with service disruptions overwhelmed religious or tribal affiliations."[7] By June 2008, Afghan Wireless reported to have 2 million subscribers across all 34 of Afghanistan's provinces.[4] The company had around 5 million users by 2009.[12] In 2011 Afghan Wireless remained partially owned by the Afghan Ministry of Communications, which maintains a 10-20% stake.[1][16]

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Executive Order 13129

In a 2011 report by Vanity Fair contributing editor David Rose, it was alleged that Afghan Wireless was linked to an American intelligence project called Operation Foxden, a Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency endeavor to wiretap Afghan Wireless' infrastructure for intelligence gathering on the Taliban regime.[1] Although allegedly authorized to proceed on September 8, 2001, Operation Foxden was rendered moot by the September 11 attacks and invasion of Afghanistan.[13][1] Rose claimed that in the operation's planning stages, the FBI and NSA helped transfer ownership of Afghan Wireless to a shell company, Netmobile, in Liechtenstein, to circumnavigate the 1999 Executive Order 13129 ban on American citizens doing business with the Taliban.[1] In response to the article, Bayat denied that American intelligence agencies were behind the change in ownership, and that "to the contrary, my application for an exemption from U.S. sanctions was denied by the U.S. government." Bayat also denied that he or his companies had acted unlawfully, installed wiretaps, or acted as "an agent, informant or spy".[1]

AWCC was a sponsor of the 2018 FIFA World Cup held in Russia, which was then broadcast in Afghanistan for the first time by the Ariana Television Network.[28]