The Afghanistan Telecoms Regulatory Authority (ATRA) and Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the State Ministry from Disaster Management on the cooperation of the development of the Afghanistan Emergency Telecom Regulatory Framework (AETRF). The AETRF will address the role of ICT with regards to pre-disaster, during-disaster and post-disaster situations. The framework will also provide a roadmap for the creation of a coordinated mechanism to handle related issues. A spokesperson added that governmental bodies and private stakeholders would coordinate emergency telecommunications services within the scope of the AETRF, based on the MoU.
In a related development, meanwhile, the ATRA has enlisted local ISP Ariana Network Services (ANS) to provide broadband connectivity to 16 universities nationwide. The deployment will be bankrolled with AFN30 million (USD440,000) from the Telecom Development Fund (TDF).