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KABUL: Afghanistan faced a second day without Internet and mobile phone service on Tuesday, after Taliban authorities cut the fiber optic network.
Taliban authorities began shutting down high speed Internet connections to some provinces earlier in the month to prevent “vice.”
On Monday night, mobile phone signal and Internet service gradually weakened until connectivity was less than one percent of ordinary levels, according to Internet watchdog NetBlocks.
It is the first time since the Taliban government won their insurgency in 2021 and imposed a strict version of Islamic law that communications have been shut down in the country.
“We are blind without phones and Internet,” said 42-year-old shopkeeper Najibullah in Kabul.
“All our business relies on mobiles. The deliveries are with mobiles. It’s like a holiday, everyone is at home. The market is totally frozen.”
In the minutes before it happened, a government official warned AFP that fiber optic would be cut, affecting mobile phone services too.
“Eight to nine thousand telecommunications pillars” would be shut down, he said, adding that the blackout would last “until further notice.”
“There isn’t any other way or system to communicate... the banking sector, customs, everything across the country will be affected,” said the official who asked not to be named.
Netblocks, a watchdog organization that monitors cybersecurity and Internet governance, said the blackout “appears consistent with the intentional disconnection of service.”
AFP lost all contact with its bureau in the capital Kabul at around 5:45 p.m. (1315 GMT).
“Because of the shutdown, I’m totally disconnected with my family in Kabul,” a 40-year-old Afghan living in Oman said via text message, asking not to be named.
“I don’t know whats happening, Im really worried.”
Telephone services are often routed over the Internet, sharing the same fiber lines, especially in countries with limited telecoms infrastructure.
Over the past weeks, Internet connections have been extremely slow or intermittent.
On September 16, Balkh provincial spokesman Attaullah Zaid said fiber optic Internet was completely banned in the northern province on the Taliban leader’s orders.
“This measure was taken to prevent vice, and alternative options will be put in place across the country to meet connectivity needs,” he wrote on social media.
At the time, AFP correspondents reported the same restrictions in the northern provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar, as well as in Kandahar, Helmand, Nangarhar and Uruzgan in the south.
In 2024, Kabul had touted the 9,350-kilometer fiber optic network – largely built by former US-backed governments – as a “priority” to bring the country closer to the rest of the world and lift it out of poverty.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponents appeared to make little progress at a White House meeting aimed at heading off a government shutdown that could disrupt a wide range of services as soon as Wednesday.
Both sides emerged from the meeting saying the other would be at fault if Congress fails to extend government funding beyond a Tuesday midnight deadline .
“I think we’re headed to a shutdown,” Vice President JD Vance said.
Democrats say any agreement to extend that deadline must also preserve expiring health benefits, while Trump’s Republicans insist health and government funding must be dealt with as separate issues.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the two sides “have very large differences.”
If Congress does not act, thousands of federal government workers could be furloughed, from NASA to the national parks, and a wide range of services would be disrupted. Federal courts might have to close and grants for small businesses could be delayed.
Budget standoffs have become relatively routine in Washington over the past 15 years and are often resolved at the last minute. But Trump’s willingness to override or ignore spending laws passed by Congress has injected a new dimension of uncertainty.
Trump has refused to spend billions of dollars approved by Congress and is threatening to extend his purge of the federal workforce if Congress allows the government to shut down. Only a handful of agencies have so far published plans detailing how they would proceed in the event of a shutdown.
The White House released an executive order Monday evening extending the life of more than 20 federal advisory committees through 2027. It remains unclear how these committees — which advise the president in areas including trade and national security — will be funded amid ongoing shutdown uncertainty.
At issue is $1.7 trillion in “discretionary” spending that funds agency operations, which amounts to roughly one-quarter of the government’s total $7 trillion budget. Much of the remainder goes to health and retirement programs and interest payments on the growing $37.5 trillion debt.
Prior to the White House meeting, Democrats floated a plan that would extend current funding for seven to 10 days, according to Democratic sources, which could buy time to hammer out a more permanent agreement. That is shorter than the timeline backed by Republicans, which would extend funding to November 21.
After returning to the Capitol, Schumer told reporters he would not accept a shorter funding bill.
Senate Republican Leader John Thune sought to pile pressure on Democrats by scheduling a Tuesday vote on the Republican bill, which has already failed once in the Senate.
There have been 14 partial government shutdowns since 1981, most lasting just a few days. The most recent was also the longest, lasting 35 days in 2018 and 2019 due to a dispute over immigration during Trump’s first term.
This time health care is at issue. Roughly 24 million Americans who get coverage through the Affordable Care Act will see their costs rise if Congress does not extend temporary tax breaks due to expire at the end of this year.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Congress needs to make those tax breaks permanent now because higher health insurance premiums are being finalized and the new signup period starts November 1.
“We believe that simply accepting the Republican plan to continue to assault and gut health care is unacceptable,” Jeffries said at a Monday press conference.
Republicans say they are willing to consider the issue, but not as part of a temporary spending patch.
“They had some ideas that I actually thought were reasonable, and they had some ideas that the president thought was reasonable. What’s not reasonable is to hold those ideas as leverage and to shut down the government,” Vance said.
Democrats want to energize their voting base ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake, and have broadly lined up behind the health care push.
But Democratic aides have privately expressed concerns that a shutdown could create a public backlash if Democrats do not effectively argue their case and instead come off sounding like just being opposed to whatever Trump wants — a stance Republicans like Thune have derided as “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”