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"After a series of attacks on mobile phone towers, it appears life in Afghanistan has gotten even harder: the four privately-owned Afghan cell companies have all cowed to the Taliban's demands and begun shutting off their networks between 5PM and 7AM every night. The Taliban claims that the companies are aiding Afghan and NATO troops by leaving the networks operational, and has attacked 10 towers in the past few weeks, completely destroying six. We're not sure how big an impact the shutoff has on troops, but there's no denying the effect on Afghan citizens, many of whom rely on mobile phones to contact loved ones and summon medical services. The Afghan government has said it's encouraging the phone companies to resist the Taliban tactics, and that it will \"persuade the companies to turn the signals back on again,\" but it's not clear when that might happen.[Via Textually.org; Image courtesy of Talking Proud]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/12/taliban-forces-afghan-cell-networks-to-shut-down-after-5pm/>