DUSHANBE, February 26, 2010, Asia-Plus — According to report by Internet World Stats, the overall number of Internet users in the Central Asian region has exceeded 5 million people.
It is to be noted that Asiatic Internet usage and population statistics updated for September 30, 2009.
The report notes that the number of Internet users in Tajikistan has reached 600,000 people by September 30, 2009, which is not bad result if to take into consideration that in 2000, only 2,000 people in Tajikistan had access to Internet. In 2008, there were more than 440,000 Internet users in the country.
Ten Internet operators now function in Tajikistan: Babilon-T; Telecom Technology; Tajiktelecom; Saturn-Online; Intercom; Saturn-Online, Eastera; MKF Networks; CompuWorld; KomCiTel and Tarena.
The report says that Uzbekistan top the Central Asian countries in terms of Internet usage. As of November 30, 2009, there were 2.469 million Internet users in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan — 2.3 million Internet users, Kyrgyzstan – 850,000 Internet users and Turkmenistan – 75,000 Internet users.
According to Internet World Stats, Tajikistan’s telecommunications network is arguably the least developed of all the countries that emerged from the former Soviet Union. With a telecom network that was near total collapse, the government has started the daunting task of bringing it up to modern standards. A gradual process of liberalization is under way and a number of private operators have been allowed to enter the telecom market since 1996, notably in the mobile and Internet sectors.
The market continued to be dominated by the state-owned incumbent operator, Tajiktelecom, which has been providing local, long-distance and international telephone services throughout the country. In addition, more than six mobile operators and around 12 ISPs had been licensed.
Despite the almost exponential growth in Tajikistan’s mobile sector over a number of years, overall the telecom market remained rudimentary. With one of the lowest fixed-line and mobile penetrations in the region in early 2006, total teledensity was estimated at around 10%. Three years later however, the total teledensity had surged to just over 55%. Of course, this was on the back of a booming mobile market where penetration had crossed the 50% mark. In the meantime, fixed-line numbers remained virtually static over this period and penetration stood at just over 5% by early 2009.
After very strong growth over the 2006-2008 period, the country’s mobile subscriber base was still expanding at an annual rate of more than 40% in 2009. Four mobile operators had been granted 3G licenses and subsequently launched networks; by early 2009 the total 3G subscriber base in Tajikistan was approaching 100,000.
By 2009 the conversion of the country’s fixed network from analogue appeared to have achieved a digital level of more than 90%, well on the way to achieving the 100% target.
Tajikistan’s Internet usage has been expanding quickly, with reports suggesting Internet user penetration of about 10% by mid-2009; however, the actual number of Internet subscribers remained relatively low (estimated penetration of around 0.1%).
Internet World Stats is an International website that features up to date world Internet Usage, Population Statistics and Internet Market Research Data, for over 233 individual countries and world regions.
