MCIT’s new policy to boost telecommunications, Internet services

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology says it has developed a new policy to regulate telecommunications and Internet services.

This policy will help improve the quality of services by all telecommunications companies as well as it will lower the charges, MCIT said.

According to the Acting Minister of Communications, although the prices of some companies have been decreased, standard services have not been yet provided.

As per the new policy, state-owned companies will invest $175 million by the end of this year to improve the quality of services, he said.

The ministry also acknowledges that the infrastructure of state-owned companies is not standardized, and thus the government has decided to standardize them this year.

“Our goal is to create a new policy to provide better services to citizens and to invest plenty in state-owned companies,” said Fahim Hashemi, MCIT acting minister.

On the other hand, economists criticize the MCIT leadership, noting that the ministry has not been able to develop a good plan to provide standard services.

According to them, telecommunication and Internet services in Afghanistan are more unsustainable and expensive than in any other country.

“There has been a lot of investments in telecommunications, but standard services are not being provided to Afghans, which means that the strategies in this ministry are not efficient and capacity needs to be built,” said Hakimullah Sediqqi, an economist.

Experts point out that MCIT is one of the most important sectors in the body of the government, but it has not been able to bring the best out of it.