Yesterday the Taliban gave Afghanistani mobile networks an ultimatum. Shut down your networks at night, or face attack. Landlines are pretty defunct in the country making mobile networks the key method of communication - for the Taliban and Allied Forces. The Allied Forces carry out plenty of their operations at night and this is what the Taliban are trying to restrict. The thing is, as has been pointed out, the Allied Forces use satellite phones too. They don’t need to rely on mobile networks. Surely the Taliban know this? If they don’t maybe they just want a quiet night’s sleep, but chances are, they do and want to put a stranglehold on the country. Where does this leave those companies?

Private companies have long endured the brunt of terrorist activites. But ransom demands pale in comparison to bombing. Bombing of the mobile towers, and offices too. I’m not sure executive decisions within private companies have been responsible for so many lives. Can they still afford a no negotiations policy? And as we see mobile technology evolve at pace, offering GPS, broadband speed data transfer and all the things a basic PC can do, can we expect comm’s and tech companies to become

increasingly targeted?

Tags: mobile, taliban, terrorism