I'm looking for cheap/slow internet connectivity options in Kabul, Jalalabad, and Herat. The connections will be used by AFCECO orphanages, so speed isn't as much of an issue as cost. I'm guessing that satellite might be the only game in town, but if any of you fine folks know of connectivity options, I'd appreciate an email.
You can get expensive and slow, not so sure about cheap and slow.
Bentley Walker and ts2.pl is what basically everyone is using out
there, and it's all 100% garbage. Our company had a contract to
provide 6 Mbps of connectivity to a NATO base, so I can share notes
with anyone who is interested.
There is fiber infrastructure around there but I'm not sure how reliable, available, or costly it is to use. The communications challenges that I have worked on into and out of Afghanistan have all been solved by satellite. I can tell you that if you want to push IP over satellite from the US, your options are very limited and more likely to be expensive. You may want to look into shared satellite providers in that part of the world. Europe has a number of them, as does Japan and China. You may even find a service point out of Dubai.
Cheers,
Ryan Wilkins