DUSHANBE, February 12, 2011, Asia-Plus — Tajik cellular operator, closed joint-stock company MLT/TT Mobile (Mobile Lines of Tajikistan), launched the 4G service in test regime on February 11.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony, the MLT executive director Aleksey Semyonov noted that the 4G Long term evaluation (LTE) stood for the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards and speed requirements for 4G service set the peak download speed at 100 Mbit/s for high mobility communication (such as from trains and cars) and 1 Gbit/s for low mobility communication (such as pedestrians and stationary users).
“MLT has been developing at a swift pace. MLT/TT Mobile was the first cellular operator in Tajikistan to offer its clients the 3G standard in 2005,” said Semyonov, “Today we are the first to test the 4G standard in the country”.
According to him, some 500,000 people throughout the world now use the LTE technology and the number of LTE users is expected to reach 3 million people until 2015.
He also noted that the number of mobile web users was increasing in Central Asia from year to year.
The mobile web refers to the use of Internet-connected applications, or browser-based access to the Internet from a mobile device – such as a smarthpone or tablet PC — connected to a wireless network.
“Current total number of the mobile web users in Central Asia is 5 million people, including 600,000 people in Tajikistan, 2.459 million people in Uzbekistan, 2.3 million people in Kazakhstan, 850,000 people in Kyrgyzstan, and 75,000 people in Turkmenistan,” Semyonov said, noting that more than 100,000 customers of MLT/TT Mobile are active users of the mobile web.
He added that 30 million U.S. dollars have been invested in development of the MLT/TT Mobile network.
MLT/TT Mobile is a joint venture between the Russian cellular operator MegaFon and Tajikistan’s national fixed-line operator, Tajik Telecom. MegaFon owns 75 percent of the shares and Tajik Telecom holds a 25 percent interest in MLT/TT-Mobile.
MegaFon, an open joint stock company, was founded in May 2002 with the renaming and reorganization of the Russian cellular operator North-West GSM.
