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Keeping in Contact With Family, From Afghanistan?
LiNKz writes "Within a short while I will be heading to Afghanistan and in the interest of keeping in communication with my wife and family I've been looking at different means of it, from VoIP to cellular services. I'm not sure how well connected or how stable of a connection the base I'm deploying to has, which means VoIP might simply not be an option. I have, however, noticed in my searches that Afghanistan has recently boomed with cellular coverage though that too seems to be difficult to ascertain. I'm curious if the Slashdot community has any information or experience regarding international cellular services offered in this country and the means of obtaining it."
Internet access and calling centers are plentiful, at least on the US bases. This is really the *last* thing you need to be worried about.
For a relatively reliable link, one could get a General class ham radio license and operate HF...although antenna and radio can get a wee bit expensive. Additionally, propagation conditions could be quite an issue.
It's a cross between instant messaging and asynchronous voip.
http://voicebeep.com/sayit
I'm currently deployed in Afghanistan at FOB Blessing and the broadband phones and internet that the MWR give us for free is actually really quite good considering where we're at. It's free and works perfectly, the only problem is the small amount of computers (8) and phones (3) available for this base with our numbers. Most of the other outposts have a MWR room with similar things in them, maybe less or more comps or phones..
Not many people use the afghani cell phones or their blackberrys (apparently depending on the plan they work here albeit very expensive).
hope this helps or reassures you!
There's always the satellite phone option. Yes it is a bit pricey, but it should be a very reliable option given the terrain, etc that make such a mountainous country a less than ideal place for a cellular or traditional radio solution.
http://www.aaronrogier.net
RFC1149 is the obvious approach one would take. Though there is some packet loss, the packets can be sufficiently large to transmit entire messages without fragmentation.
Communication Through un-official means may get you into some trouble, so be discrete no matter what option you choose so be careful. When the prime minister of Canada visited our base in kandahar they blacked out official communications and were really on top of unauthorized communications (no e-mail even). Keep your head down mate!
Osama, is that you?
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Unless you like giving NSA employees jollies, don't be doing any phone sex from Afghanistan.
While you may have questionable internet, Skype is free and you can use it whenever you do find a internet connection. I set it up for a couple of friends and acquaintances while they served in Iraq and they were really happy with it, especially the video phone part of it.
Video Skype on a Linux Netbook is the easiest way to do it.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
My company provides VSAT service in the Middle East and Africa, including as far east as Afghanistan.
VSAT latency is 600-1000 ms, and many VSAT Internet service providers prioritise voice-over-IP. We certainly do, although to a limited number of providers due to technical limitations.
Given sufficient bandwidth, VoIP will do fine. Be sure to use a service that supports good audio compression, and turn it on. Use G.729 or G.723, and never G.711.
On an iDirect VSAT network with cRTP enabled (RTP header compression), a G.729 call needs about 16 kbit each way. Good VSAT service in that area will have at least 64 kbit upload and 256 kbit download.
My father has been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and other places around the world and he brings with him a T-Mobile Quad-band phone with the International Package. He got pretty good service in Afghanistan. You can check the rates here: https://www.t-mobile.com/International/RoamingOverview.aspx?tp=Inl_Tab_RoamWorldwide It looks like calls are about $4.99/minute there, so you probably won't want to chat for hours on end, but my family has used this method for several deployments and it works stellar. Thank you for your service.
I'm currently in Afghanistan as well.
SPAWAR provided phones at the MWR are cheap. Take a look at the link: http://oif.spawareurope.net/
Also, Bently-Walker provides good satellite Internet out here. That's what I'm using right now.
Is price an object?
If not, you can buy an iridium phone for around $1400. Plans are around $30/mo, and $1.45 a minute, Or you can do prepaid. They work everywhere, and are pretty portable. You can call the phone from the US for regular long distance charges using a pass-through number.
If you're at an established base, net connectivity isn't an issue. The same connection that provides net connectivity does phones and other comm. This will be kept up as a matter of necessity.
Bandwidth is crap, however. You won't be streaming music or movies. When I was at a rather small, forward base, what I did was telnet/ssh to a pre-setup stateside linux box with an ncurses (read, text based) AIM client installed on it. It's low bandwidth, and generally not filtered. Worst case, setup your stateside box to sit on port 80, which is NEVER entirely blocked.
How useful this all is of course depends on how often you can get a laptop on the network. I was a comm guy, in fact, the comm guy responsible for local infrastructure, so, a drop to my tent was a given, and I brought my own laptop. Depending on your job, you'll get more or less time at a computer, I know most shops had at least one computer in their tent/structure. Since telnet is a standard tool, you don't have to install anything.
Best of Luck!
Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?
My Uncle was stationed out in the Pacific doing atomic bomb tests in the 1950s and had weekly chats with his family in California via shortwave radio. Should still work today!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I have a friend in Kabul, Afghanistan ... civil stuff, but works in military base. They have internet there, but 70mb daily, then they shut you down .. until tomorrow.
At least you can use messangers... if the latency sucks, sorry.. don't know the details.
Actually, the RFC1149 protocol has been deprecated in favor of RFC4376, the lunch protocol.
Just dig your old Commodore 64 out of the ground, and dial up a BBS.
I would use text messaging personally. Coverage is not as much a concern, the messages queue and send/receive when you are in range. (As long as there's SOME coverage at any rate.) Plus, outside the US, voice tends to be rather pricey, if your relatives have a phone they probably text more anyway.
If you have a web cam you can send video mail.
Good luck.
I was deployed to Afghanistan last year and was able to call back home a few ways. Also it helped that I was signals intelligence.
Skype-on Bagram or Kandajar this was very popular since you can get your own internet (crappy Indian internet at least) in your B-Hut. A USB skype is great for MWR computers, but you will have spyware and/or a virus on it after you use it. Also if you use this option bring a copy of limewire or some flavour of it and tell it to not connect to the internet. Both areas are giant LANs so you can get tons of movies and music. I bought a 500 gig HD there and filled it before I came home.
Calling card- this is the simplest way on semi built up FOBs and main bases. Cheap, simple and effective. VoIP phones are everywhere in heavy duty areas. Just make sure you get a state side DSN that will transfer you out to POTS. Some airbases and guard bases in the states will transfer you for free to local numbers in the area you are calling, so make sure to ask your chain of command if anything exists like that for you.
Cell phone-it is pretty expensive but it works. Shop around for minutes at different markets through out the country. Cell phone reception goes from decent near cities and main highways to "I haven't seen a bar on my phone for the last 400 miles."
Make friends with somebody that has an iridium- About 2 months into my tour I was given a job that meant I had to travel to every corner of Afghanistan and back again. Before we left my first sergeant gave me an iridium and said to use it if SIPR/NIPR/DSN was unavailable. We soon figured out we could use it as much as we wanted so we pimped it out at remote FOBs. The guys were very thankful for that. Pretty much for 10 months we had our own personal satellite phone. There is bound to be a few others around the country in a similar situation.
Good luck and I hope you don't have to go to Konar, Korengal or Musah Qaleh.
Cell phones are a pretty easy if slightly expensive depending on how often/long you call home. No waits at the MWR either. You need to check with your chain of command tho to make sure they are ok with personal cells. Many units forbid personal cell phones and you can recieve UCMJ action if caught with one.
To use a Cell Phone network in a country that is very likely infiltrated by your adversary and using it to place phone calls to your loved ones at home.
You loose anonimity for you and your family and it can be used against you.
is in iraq on his second deployment. before he left for the second time, he picked up a laptop, and now communicates with the family via skype, and keeps in touch with his buds via wow.
iraq is iraq, and afghanistan is afghanistan, i can't really speak to what differences there may be from base to base let alone country to country, but i'd have to assume that there would be some similarities in infrastructure, availability, etc. expect your latency to be pretty high. my buddy's wow ping is usually around 2k. not sure how well skype works, but he hasn't asked about finding a replacement, and voice chat/vent for wow worked ok.
good luck
not only is time travel possible, it's irrelevant.
hackel, You're a fucking piece of shit
you can get a cell on the local economy... shouldn't be too expensive. sometimes shitty service, and your commander (assuming you're military) may ban the use.
and to all of the "go kill yourself" douche bags on here....
soldiers don't decide the wars they fight. politicians who derive their power from the people they govern (at least in the US... most of the time) decide the which wars are fought.
Find Junis. Use his Commodore 64...
Unfortunately, the OP forgot to include one bit of important information: are they being deployed as part of military service, or as part of a civilian effort?
While there are a few people on Slashdot who are or have been in the military (and I hope they speak up), I daresay the general Slashdot opinion will be worth about what the OP paid for it: squat. I haven't been in the service, but can imagine that there are a raft of security issues around communications back home and that they need to be done through approved channels.
For civilian deployments, however, the story is entirely different. For this, there is lots of worthwhile advice. Here's my bit ...
1. I've yet to be in a town, even in remote parts of eastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, where there isn't some sort of internet cafe. Connectivity is available. Some intenet cafes even have headsets for Skype.
2. Cellular phone service is nearly ubiquitous. Seriously. You have to get very remote to not have some kind of mobile phone service. The US has terrible coverage compared to Europe and the Middle East. I've been on small, remote islands in the Aegean with 5 bars. And I've yet to find a country (including in the former Soviet bloc) where you can't get pay-as-you-go service that's heaploads cheaper than any US phone company's international roaming. Just make sure that your phone is (a) unlocked and (b) quad band GSM. Or buy one there.
3. Everything in the Middle East is negotiable. Everything. Negotiation and bartering is part of the culture.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
I don't know the feasibility of using this over there, but if you have access to a computer you could look into a Magicjack.
Basically, you plug the Magicjack into a USB jack and it acts like a Voip gateway for a phone. You can use a regular phone or a computer Speaker/Microphone to call. Since you can use a local number for your jack, if you family calls you it will not be long distance. It also supports Caller-ID and voicemail. combine with this phone, and you got a lightweight solution. Although that handset isn't looking too stellar review wise.
It's not the cheapest solution though. Magicjack costs 39.95 for the unit which comes with 1 year of service. After that it's 19.95 a year. Also, the Military may frown on software being installed on their PC's. If you are bringing a notebook or Netbook you shouldn't have a problem though. Third, bandwidth could be an issue too, since it needs a minimum of 128 kb/s to function.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
I was deployed to Iraq in '06/'07. When I was there, cell phones were a big no-no, and for good reason. Allowing unsecured communications is a BIG security risk. VOIP was also not an option because there was no way to connect my computer to the Internet and one cannot simply install unauthorized software on government computers.
Your best bet is to use provided channels. We had phones though MWR (very cheap but limited to 30 min calls and with long waits), and the AT&T phone center (less wait time, no time limits, but more expensive). I found that using the military's DSN network was the best bet if you can get access to a phone. (I worked in the company office so it wasn't a problem for me.) Call a stateside switch board and they can give you an outside civilian line. From there you can use a regular phone card. If you find a switchboard near home you may be able simply to place a local call.
Just got back last July. Most cities, major roads and Coalition bases have cell phone voice coverage. In my experience, data services were non-existent outside of Kabul. I primarily used prepaid cell service where I purchased cards to add minutes -- voice only. I made a few international calls on that cell but felt they cost too much for regular use (about $0.80 per minute to US). I used the coalition provided comms wherever possible. The only commercial ISPs I saw off a US base were in Kabul and the data rates were roughly from well below 56k modem to maybe 128k DSL. Hope this helps. Stay safe.
Invenio via vel creo
I'm trying to be a troll, however, I have a very good friend who is currently deployed in Kwohst and keeps us informed on a regular basis using facebook. We even chat as I'm waking up and he's going to sleep.
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
Probably best to wait and see when you get there. It's been over a year since I was there and NIPR was horrible and limited but enough to provide the basic connection. Then our camp had a satellite connected that about a hundred of us shared. It was slower than dialup and expensive with a high monthly rate and initial equipment charge of a 2-3k, if memory serves. Hopefully things have changed and you have fiber to the hubble by then. lol. Good luck and keep your head down!
I can tell you that as someone who has experience deploying to both Iraq and Afghanistan, it is not all that hard to keep in contact with your friends and family back home. Now, granted, I was a commo guy in the Army, so i had access to phones/internet at practically any given time. But, if another soldier asked to use our phone or internet line I usually had no problem letting them do so. Unless they were a jerk. If that's the case, then they're on their own. But yeah, the VoIP phones that the Army uses, the MWR phones, and Skype all work very well out there. Couple pieces of advice: Make friends with your commo guys!! And, try to get the number to a couple Air Force base MWR call centers. The Army ones will cut you off after only about 15 mins, but the Air Force leaves you alone. Maybe that's changed though, I haven't been there in almost 2 years now, and don't plan going back. =P Good luck to ya man! Stay safe.
As previously stated... iridium is an option. I currently use GlobalStar. The phone is pricey, but I only pay $30 for unlimited usage (if u get within a spot beam for the satellite).
There is a hacker named Junis in the Kabul area can I hear he can help, got an old Commodore on dial-up through Pakistan that works sometimes. He got an awesome (tho low res) porn collection as well! Good Luck, and say Hi to Junis!
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
I noticed not a lot of people are talking about cellular options. Yeah, it's a rather underdeveloped country, and Internet means may not be feasible. But most if not all of the cellular network there is GSM, so depending on your carrier and plan, you might be able to get an international capable plan. I know that in my case, with Verizon (who uses CDMA) I would have to get a quad-band phone (around $300, supports both GSM and CDMA) as well as add international calling to my plan (another $4.99/mo), and the calls themselves would be quite expensive (about $2.29 a minute). But I feel your pain, I'm looking at deploying to Iraq later this year and I want very much to keep in touch with my beloved wife, more often than the military would generally permit me.
You can get a Roshan cell phone, they're very afordable. They are available at Bagram Airfield at the West PX Complex and many merchants outside of BAF can get you phone cards. Some FOB/COP's depending on where you go may have spawar phone's at the MWR center that are cheap but I like the freedom of a cell phone. Also if you have a DSN and whoever you're trying to call has a phone number withing the area code limits of the base/post you can have the base/post operator transfer your call to them. Hope that helps, hooah!
Good karma sticks to me like velcro on a piece of plexiglass.
Move along, citizen.
I just got back from Afghanistan there are two main prepaid services over there great cell phone service, they are roshan and Afghan Wireless, Afghan Wireless is your best bet they even have internet over there phones about twice as fast as dial up, usually for about 500 units it is 5 bucks and gets you 10 minutes of calling can be a bit pricey but is good in the long run.
Modern, tri-band cellular telephones can be purchased at your Exchange at a good price (or pick one up before you leave home), with Rosham (spelling?) as your chip provider. The sat. footprint for the cell service is wall to wall and treetop tall.
Roshan is around 5 years old. Why not ask them?
Check the map.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
He will sort out any problems you might have - for a fee of course.
There's a dilemma here: if you feel that your country needs you, to fight and protect it, go there and be a real soldier not a kitty, needing to call mamma. Otherwise, as that private in Street fighter said: "go home and be a family man"!
Besides, do you realise that you're fighting a fake war? Do you think Bin Laden blew the towers? Let me laugh at you, poor idiot. Do you think he's hiding in the mountains? hahaha, you poor manipulable idiot. If all intelligence activity in your country and in my beloved europe cannot stop the terrorists, then you'll never stop them. Invading a country doesn't have to do with terrorism at all, but with petrol(etc). If all of you, fucking americans, would study a little the history of other countries (yeah! they exist! you're not alone in the world!) you'd realise that terrorism is fought with guerrilla wars, with dirty tricks and a lot of intelligence, not by invading a country, and least of all manipulating the richness of that country and apropriating it. Irak: weapons of mass destruction (now your petrol is ours), Afghanistan (any oil conduct around here, mon amour?) , Iran is next (in the list of biggest oil world producers)(let's not invade it yet, we spent too much money in Irak, and -who knows?- we might yet advance a bit with renewable technologies).
As a summary,
I HOPE YOU DIE THERE, IDIOT
A spanish bastard
I'm currently deployed in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan. I've had decent luck using MagicJack. It's basically a VOIP system. The internet connection is through a local Afghan company - usually get about 6K / second; which is just barely enough bandwidth for a conversation ... but it works. It's also nice that family and friends can call the local number (US phone #) and the phone rings in Afghanistan.
Just my 2 cents.
If you are going to Afghanistan and you are a Slashdot reader then it is quite likely that you are going to Afghanistan as a solder.
If that is the case then you should say good by to your family or don't go at all. It is your choice. Your country doesn't depend on the status of Afghanistan for its freedom or economic security. Your family depends on you for its freedom or economic security. If you go to the other side of the world for some vague and undefined reason like duty or honor, then you are betraying your family.
If you are going to be a solder in a strange and distant land then you should accept the fact that you are a solder. YOU are leaving your home for the purpose of killing people in the place that you are going to. You must reasonably expect that the people there are going to kill you for being there. Being concerned about your family only complicates the situation and makes it difficult for you to focus on what you are doing: which is killing the people in the place that you are going to.
You can believe that the people who have dedicated their lives to killing you for being in their country have said good by to their families. They have told their families that they are going to fight the invader, they expect to be killed, and the family should consider him to be dead already.
This is what solders have done since the beginning of time. You are no different. You should not pretend otherwise. Forget your family.
If you are not a solder then there are only two reasons that you could be going to Afghanistan. One is to be a worker in non-governmental organization. You should stay home. The Afghan people don't need NGOs. The Afghan people generally try to kill NGO workers. Since you are not a solder, you have no legal or moral way to protect yourself from those are quite successfully killing the NGO workers in Afghanistan. Be an NGO worker in your own country.
The only other possibility is that you are a drug dealer. Afghanistan is the world's largest supplier of heroin. You should stay home. The world, your country, and your family don't need any more heroin dealers. Go work at a McDonalds instead.
Afghanistan has pretty good cell phone coverage and not horrible long distance rates. And like most of the rest of the world (not U.S.A) any GSM phone that utilizes the right bands (get a quad band world phone) will work there. A SIM card is like $5.00 and you just buy refill cards at whatever denomination you need. No contracts, no BS, just pay as you go.
In Kabul our house had a 512kbs down 128kbs up satellite link that we split between 18 odd people... It only cost $30,000 a year and was about the cheapest satellite connection available. With that little bandwidth and that many people, VoIP worked decently during non-peak use hours, but not so well when everybody was on. Ping times and packet loss really sucked.
About the time I was leaving a group of friends got a wireless connection, 802.11 something or WiMax I think from one of the cell phone companies. It was about as expensive per person & shared bandwidth as our satellite connection. Being terrestrial based rather than satellite, it had much better ping times.
Most of the bigger military bases have some local ISP on the base providing service for reasonable ($10-60 or so a month) rates. Service is usually way over subscribed and supported by cat5 strung over the ground or what not.
The military is pretty good about supporting the troops. If you have a DSN (Defense Switched Network) phone, which is most of the phones the military has over there, you can call a U.S. military base stateside and have them patch you through to a local number near the base, or a 1-800 number for a calling card.
I know several people who use the Afghan cell networks, primarily Roshan. I think at least three are using their own personal cell phones, including an iPhone and a Blackberry. I don't remember the rates exactly, but it's reasonable considering the circumstances.
I use Skype to video chat every night on a commercial satellite ISP sponsored here on base by AAFES. I pay $100 a month for the top tier upload and download speed, and I think it's barely adequate to push the video upstream. Again, it's worth it to me.
Good luck, and stay safe.
I asked the same question about Broadband in Iraq for a friend who is stationed there who is all but 100% cutoff from the world (you have to be at a NICE base to get decent acess) if your in the a lot of the support units you get next to nothing.
You'd have thought I was asking who wanted free herpes.
Maybe I should have said it was me who was going to get greenlit.
Posting ac here for opsec reasons:
this is obviously your first deployment to "the Stan"
first of all im Canadian so Kandahar is my experience. from what ive seen, you can buy pay as you go style cell phones and sim cards from any local market. your country may have restrictions on this but others don't so KAF might have what your looking for.
second: don't and I SAY AGAIN don't bring your pers cell, using a pay as you go sim/cell is bad enough but calling home from a pers cell sends up red flags to TB/AQ. think of it like thousands of local call all over vs hundreds of international cells(phones) all of witch are potential targets for at the very least harassing phone calls.
I've actually run into this sort of thing with our terps. They get stopped by a random taliban road block, see and international number on their phones, dial it and if and english voice answers the phone: bullet to the head.
Last: most bigger bases and FOB's have ample phone time aloted to soldiers, and even if you are civi you can still buy phone cards from the PX or CANEX(Both sell to anybody). Go with this, but remember OPSEC at all times as TB/AQ can and do listen in. maybe not to every call but i never take chances.
FYI, In Kandar I managed to talk to friends/family, update facebook, take car of banking and even a little ebay(you will get an APO for your base/FOB) for about $15US a week. All that with the last option(phone cards). I used my cell phone strictly for dealing with the locals.
almost forgot: secure SATPHONES are an option if price is no object for you, but they are quite pricey. depending on your job you may be issued one but higher may not like you phoning family/friends on it.
I'm going on a longer trip to the Oz outback - and after some serious investigation, I desiced on Globalstar (www.globalstar.com) for my connectivity. In Europe, you have the option of paying 50 EUR as a connection fee, and then NOTHING as a monthly fee. The call costs range from .80 euroCents to 1.75 EUR, which I find acceptable for urgent communication (and the occasional "I'm standing under Ayers Rock!" call).
The Phone was 150 CDN on eBay.
And yes, they have service in Afghanistan. As a note however, they're having satellite issues, so you don't always have connectivity...
Take a look at:
http://www.globalstareurope.com/en/content.php?cid=300
Solders are awesome in USia, if soldiers are as good those Taliban are lost...
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I haven't been to Afghanistan yet, but just got back from Iraq. Some things to consider: