Mobile communications and Internet in Afghanistan
Compared to the United States, Afghanistan is massively lagging behind in the development of telecommunications. Under the country code +93, there were a total of 22.82 million connections in 2022. Among them were 22.68 million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 0.57 per person. In the US, this figure is 1.1 mobile phones per person.Back to overview: AfghanistanInternet speed for cell phones and fixed network
With an average download speed of 3.1 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Afghanistan ranks 181st in an international comparison. The upload rate was only 1.9 Mbit/second (178th place).In mobile internet, i.e., on tablets and smartphones, Afghanistan comes 141st with a download speed of 4.7 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 2 Mbit was enough for 141st place.
The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in October 2023 from 182 countries.
Mobile phone rates in Afghanistan
Every year, the International Telecommunication Union calculates for many countries what a mobile phone contract costs to use. A monthly budget averaging US$ 6.70 was calculated Afghanistan in 2022. Compared to the previous year, this amount has fallen by 26 percent.The ITU refers to the costs for monthly use and includes 140 telephony minutes, 70 text messages and a data transfer of 2 GBytes. The transfer speed should be the minimum of a 3G connection, i.e. at least UMTS, which is already outdated in many parts of the world. 2 GBytes do not sound much. However, this is already quite a high consumption in a worldwide comparison. If one does not take a fixed amount in US dollars, but converts it to the economic output per inhabitant, a user in Afghanistan spends 21.09% of his income on mobile telephony. Worldwide, this rate is around 5.4 percent.
In the USA, the monthly cost was around $43.80.
The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100 percent mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.
Access to the internet in Afghanistan from 2001 - 2020
Broadband internet in Afghanistan 2004 - 2021
Afghanistan is lagging behind in the expansion of broadband internet connections. Around 18 percent of all residents have access to the internet. Around 0 percent have their own fast internet connection, which is at least faster than the former ISDN (more than 256 kbit/s). All fixed connections via DSL, cable or satellite were counted here, but not those connected to the internet via mobile communications. 
Country comparison: Afghanistan / United States
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