By decree of the antimonopoly agency, as of April 14, the minimum fee for mobile internet connections has more than doubled. At the same time, the cost of making calls from one mobile phone provider to another has risen around threefold.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ilhom Atoyev, the deputy head of the communications service agency, claims that with the rising cost of Internet people will use it more rationally. “They will play less and will not hurt their eyes. They will protect their health,” Atoyev told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“Look at youth – Their heads down, they are all day on the Internet. They do not understand anything. They enter the virtual world and do not return back. People will start communicating with each other and reading books,” the communications official.
Recall, Tajikistan’s mobile operators are introducing new mobile Internet tariffs. Beginning on April 18, all mobile communications companies operating in Tajikistan will have the unified tariff scale.
With consent of the Antimonopoly Agency, the mobile operators have divided their unified tariff scale into three type: 25-somni subscription payment; 30-somoni subscription payment; and 35-somoni subscription payment.
Calls through messengers also rose in cost in Tajikistan. Now the price of one minute of call through messenger to a mobile phone number costs 0.25 somoni (more than twofold increase).
The price of one minute of call through messengers (Chi Gap?, MobilGap, Megafon Life and Salom) of Tajik mobile operators to a mobile phone number has risen more than twice in cost – from 0.10-0.12 somoni to 0.25 somoni, an official source at one of Tajik mobile operators told Asia-Plus in an interview.
By Antimonopoly Agency’s order on the new messenger call price took effect on April16.
Tajik mobile operators launched their messengers Chi Gap? (Tcell), MobilGap (Babilon-M), Megafon Life (Megafon Tajikistan) and Salom (Beeline Tajikistan) after the communications service agency on December 18, 2017 informed all telecommunications companies in the country to suspend access to NGN (the next-generation network) accounts.
Mostly, Tajik labor migrants use messengers to call their families and relatives in Tajikistan.
