- Mobile signals wifi return across provinces, including Kandahar, Herat.
- Afghans are celebrating in Kabul streets with sweets, balloons and beans.
- The UN calls on the Taliban to ensure uninterrupted access to Internet services.
Mobile networks and the Internet were restored throughout Afghanistan on Wednesday, 48 hours after the Taliban authorities closed telecommunications.
Confusion grabbed the South Asian country on Monday night as mobile phone service and the internet went down without warning, freezing businesses and cut off Afghans from the rest of the world.
The massive blackout came weeks after the government began cutting high -speed internet connections to some provinces to prevent “immoral” on orders from the top leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
AFP Journalists reported on Wednesday that mobile phone signals and WiFi had returned to provinces across the country, including Kandahar in the south, Khost in the East, Central Ghazni and Herat in the West.
The Taliban government has not yet commented on the telecommunications closure.
On Wednesday night, hundreds of Afghans poured into the streets of the capital Kabul and spread the word that the internet was back.
“It’s like Eid al-Adha; it’s like preparing to go to prayer,” said 26-year-old Sohrab Ahmadi, a delivery driver.
“We are very happy from the bottom of our hearts.”
After days of tension, Afghans celebrated by buying candy and balloons when drivers hacked their horns, phones pressed to their ears.
“The city is alive again,” Mohammad Tawab told Farooqi, a restaurant manager in the city AFP.
Businesses, airports, banks closed
Netblocks, a watchdog organization that monitors cyber security and internet management, said blackout “appears to be in accordance with the intentional interruption of service”.
It said connection had subsided to 1% of the regular levels.
Warned an official AFP Minutes before the shutdown Monday night that the fiber optic network would be reduced, which affects mobile phone services, “so far notice”.
There were widespread closures of companies, airports and markets, while banks and postal offices were unable to operate.
Afghans were unable to contact each other in or out of the country, and many families prevented their children from going to school during the uncertainty.
Those who live in Herat and Kandahar traveled to border towns to catch signals from neighboring Iran and Pakistan.
The United Nations said Tuesday that the closure “left Afghanistan almost completely cut off from the outside world” and called on the authorities to restore access.
Internet connections have been extremely slow or intermittent in recent weeks.
On September 16, when the first Internet services were first cut into the northern provinces, Balkh provincial spokesman Attaullah Zaid said the ban had been ordered by Taliban’s leader.
“This measure was taken to prevent vice, and alternative options will be introduced throughout the country to meet connection needs,” he wrote on social media.
“Recent studies in Afghanistan found that internet applications have influenced the ongoing, economic, cultural and religious foundations of society,” he said.
