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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."
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!
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!
Video Skype on a Linux Netbook is the easiest way to do it.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
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?
I spent 6 months in a coalition log base that had zero internet, phones, pay, tv, or mail services. The only americans were my platoon, an ODA team, some rogue infantry major (a US liaison to another country), and a few commo guys. My platoon chipped in and bought a Satellite and a monthly plan from a local.. we had to pay in cash, however. Each plt member paid $100 the first month and $30 after that. We drove 2 hrs to the nearest FOB a few times a month. It had all the normal services so we could pickup mail for the logbase and get our monthly allowance from finance. I think the service plan we had gave us 12 unique IPs to play with. The service was good too(when there wasn't asshats leaving P2P stuff running all out). However, i recommend you stick to non-live communications as much as possible. Phonecalls make people cry and you just won't be as focused on the job with that kind of stuff to worry about (imo, of course. To each their own).
It's a good idea that a senior NCO has control of the satellite so he can pull it down if he feels there is a good reason (sudden visit by a VIP, for example). The NCO can ensure everyone is running AV and NOT doing anything mission critical with the computer (watch Officers! anything official even memo's should be done on a non-network'd machine). Using a cheap (220v!) Router with assigned MACs is a good control mechanism. This is really only feasible with a small unit. You are responsible for lives and millions in equipment.. i feel there is no reason why you could not run a small network without oversight.
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