Keeping in Contact With Family, From Afghanistan? 176
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."
Not an issue anymore (Score:2, Informative)
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.
MWR provided internet and Voip (Score:5, Informative)
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!
Regulations (Score:5, Informative)
Video Skype (Score:5, Informative)
VSAT and VoIP will work fine (Score:2, Informative)
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.
T-Mobile International is the Ticket (Score:4, Informative)
A Little Info (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Iridium (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Keeping in touch downrange (Score:4, Informative)
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!
Re:Iridium (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Regulations (Score:2, Informative)
Re:T-Mobile International is the Ticket (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.militel.net/default2.asp?ag=undefined
Militel is a great method for keeping in contact. It's relatively low cost and you can use just about any Afgan phone. They even give you an 800 number so that people can call you from the states. My father just got back from a 13 month tour at FOB Lindsey and it worked out great for our whole family
Re:Keeping in touch downrange (Score:4, Informative)
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.
I bet to differ. Most of the larger bases have a SPAWAR system, which is great. It's slow as shit during peak hours, but if you can get on in the early morning it flies. I have hit 400k+ sec on movie torrents. It is 6 AM right now and I am currently downloading three torrents at 120k/sec total.
Re:MWR provided internet and Voip (Score:5, Informative)
Yo dude, hello from Camp Phoenix, Kabul! Never been to Blessing, but I've heard of it. IIRC, you fuckers are always getting lit up, or at least you used to when I went through the area a couple years back.
To the OP, most larger bases have a SPAWAR system. That's a very good satellite system with a bunch of phones and computers available. You purchase minutes off the SPAWAR web site and make calls back to the states for $.04/min. You can also use Skype, as VOIP bandwidth is guaranteed. Laptops are generally not allowed on the system, but the network actually has very few (if any) restrictions. I download torrents all the time, for example, by running uTorrent off a thumb drive. The system is really slow during peak hours but in the middle of the night you can get some fantastic download speeds. I've hit 400k+ a sec before on torrents.
Smaller bases (small FOBs) may only have DSN phone access. In that case, you just call back to a base in the states, have them transfer you to an outside line, and use your calling card to complete the call. Just as cheap as SPAWAR, though more hassle.
At any rate, what it comes down to is, you will have no problems keeping in touch with family, even if you are stationed on the smallest, shittiest FOB in Afghanistan. So don't worry about it!
P.S. be sure to bring a big external drive. You'll need it to hold the thousands of movies people will let you copy off their drives.
Been There, Done That (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not an issue anymore (Score:4, Informative)
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.
My experiences from Afghanistan (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re:MWR provided internet and Voip (Score:1, Informative)
I was stationed at Asadabad not to far south from Camp Blessing, I can confirm what this poster said. Most of the MWR rooms have computers with Skype, etc and ours had open ports on the switch specifically for people to bring in their laptops. Additionally, if you are going there with a PRT or something and can swing it with people you are going with, the base commanders wont have an issue with you getting a connection supplied locally.