Over the last weekend, some websites, including news resources like Asia-Plus and RFE/RL’s Tajik service, social media sites Facebook and Twitter, a video-sharing website YouTube and messengers like Whatsapp and IMO were inaccessible in Tajikistan. Some sites were sporadically available, depending on the provider.
The Tcell mobile phone company has circulated a note to its clients saying that the sudden slowdown in internet provision is related to unspecified technical issues.
An official source at the Tajik communications service agency told Asia-Plus that that some websites were inaccessible over the weekend because of technical reasons. “We are working on this subject and all website will operate regularly soon,” the source said.
On August 6, access to the mentioned websites was restored.
Recall, local fixed-lined and mobile service providers are now deprived of the right to buy data traffic from neighboring countries. Internet service providers (ISPs) must now buy data from a structure called the Unified Electronic Communications Switching Center, which is owed by state-run telecommunication operator Tojiktelekom, which in turn is run by the telecommunications service agency. The authorities cited security as grounds for the prohibition.
