Internet service providers (ISPs) in Tajikistan complain about high prices set by the state-run telecommunications company, Tojiktelecom, for Internet it distributes to them.
Beginning from this year, all Internet traffic is required to pass through the infrastructure owned by Tojiktelecom.
In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, Tojiktelecom top manager Muzaffar Himmatov noted on January 25 that such rules operate in neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Himmatov, however, refrained from commenting on prices of Internet traffic for Tajik ISPs.
Meanwhile, Tojiktelecom lowers Internet prices for its customers. On November 1, 2017, Tojiktelecom reduced Internet prices for its customers by 20 percent.
According to ISPs, they now receive Internet from Tojiktelecom at the rate of 51,000 U.S. dollars per gigabit (VAT not included).
For comparison, Tajik ISPs had earlier received Internet from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan at the rate ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 U.S. dollars per gigabit.
Tajikistan remains dependent on satellite-based connections using Discovery Global Networks, as the cost of fiber remains high. The country is connected to the Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic highway passing through Uzbekistan, and a second connection is from Kyrgyzstan.
In Tajikistan, most Internet users are young and access the Internet through Internet cafés close to schools and universities.
Although more than 70 percent of the population resides in rural areas, Internet access is mainly restricted to urban areas because of poor infrastructure and low afford-ability.
According to the latest data, some 1.6 million citizens of Tajikistan, which is some 19 percent of the country’s population, use Internet.
The majority of them see the Internet as an informational and educational resource, but not as a means to create local information resources.
The World Bank report, Reaping Digital Dividends: Leveraging the Internet for Development in Europe and Central Asia, which was presented in Dushanbe on June 13, 2017 in particular, notes that the residents of Central Asia and the South Caucasus pay some of the highest prices in the world for internet connections that are slow and unreliable.
The report says the fixed-line Internet access in Tajikistan remains limited to major urban areas, and the primary method of access is via dial-up or leased-line connections, while a handful of Internet service providers (ISPs) also provide satellite and fiber broadband services.
The Internet in Tajikistan emerged in the 1990s and Internet services developed largely without state interference.
The Tajik authorities established the Unified Electronic Communications Switching Center last year and required that all Internet and mobile communications traffic be run through the single state-owned telecoms provider, Tojiktelecom. The Center centralizes all telephone and Internet communications with the aim of facilitating surveillance on the grounds of combatting terrorism and extremism. It allows the government to have complete control over domestic communications without any safeguards.
The idea of creating a government-administered information gateway has been circulating since 2005. The stated aim of the recurring initiative has been to prevent “illegal” communications that could undermine national security.
