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6d ago

Afghanistan’s Internet and Phone Services Largely Restored After Days-Long Blackout

The outage exposed Afghanistan’s dependence on connectivity for banking, aviation, aid operations and the online lifelines used by many women.

Afghan children sit on a concrete bench at a hilltop, amid telecom shutdown across the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on September 30, 2025.
Image
A general view shows the city of Kabul following a nation-wide telecom outage.
Afghan women wait at a counter to withdraw money inside a bank in Kandahar.

Overview

  • Connectivity fell to around 1% of normal traffic at the peak of the shutdown, according to NetBlocks, before partial restoration began late Oct. 1 into Oct. 2.
  • Taliban officials deny ordering a nationwide ban and attribute disruptions to decaying fiber being replaced, while diplomats, industry sources and monitors reported phased, authority-directed cuts.
  • The United Nations said the unexplained outage paralyzed banks, remittances and flight operations and disrupted humanitarian work, with commercial air traffic later cleared to resume.
  • Women and girls lost access to online classes and work during the blackout, with the Malala Fund estimating about two million were deprived of courses that had become an essential lifeline.
  • Media verification proved difficult during the shutdown, with the Associated Press retracting a report that relied on an unverified WhatsApp message, underscoring ongoing confusion over official communications.