JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — The Taliban forces now regrouping in southern Afghanistan may have communications problems, but U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Nov. 13 that the Taliban have at least two small satellite telephones at their disposal.

The phones are part of the Thuraya satellite service, where use in Afghanistan has skyrocketed in recent weeks since the war began.

Yousuf Al Sayed, chief executive of Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Co. of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, said the company was booking 120 hours per day in calls from Afghanistan alone. Thuraya, which began commercial operations in July, counts 8,000 subscribers in 25 nations in the Middle East and South Asia.

Two Thuraya phones were being carried by Abdul Haq, an Afghan resistance fighter who slipped into the country to sow anti-Taliban sentiment in southern Afghanistan. Haq and his party were ambushed by Taliban forces and Haq was hanged.

Al Sayed said the Taliban kept the two Thuraya phones and have been using them. Thuraya, he said, plans to cut off the service.

Thuraya expects to have a license to operate in Pakistan within weeks and expects a booming market there as government organizations, relief workers, journalists and others deal with the war and the Afghan refugee crisis.