Following a new decision on raising communications prices, the number of Tajiks using SIM cards of Kyrgyz mobile operators will increase.
According to various data, more than 10,000 residents of Tajik areas bordering Kyrgyzstan now use SIM cards of Kyrgyz mobile operators. They have chosen Kyrgyz mobile network operators because services offered by them are cheaper and more qualitative than services offered by Tajik mobile network operators.
Residents of the northern districts of isfara and Bobojon-Ghafourov in Sughd province bordering Kyrgyzstan and the Lakhsh district in the Rasht Valley (eastern Tajikistan) have been using SIM cards of Kyrgyz mobile operators Megacom and O!.
Ghafour Erkayev, the head of the Association of Mobile Operators of Tajikistan, says “Kyrgyzstan’s mobile operators must observe the frequency regime existing in border areas.”
“Foreign operators must work in their zones and observe all security measures in border areas. The same situation is with Afghanistan. The communications service agency should work in this direction,” Erkayev.
The deputy head of the Communications Service under the Government of Tajikistan, Ilhom Atoyev, says houses in border areas of the two countries are located close to each other, and therefore, “it is very difficult to control the frequencies, and Kyrgyz mobile operators should transfer their antennas deer into their territory.”
According to him, they have repeatedly applied to Kyrgyz authorities on this issue.
Ilhom Atoyev also noted that using SIM cards of Kyrgyz mobile operators in Tajik territory is illegal.
Meanwhile, Tajik mobile operators admit that they are losing their customers every day. After issuance of government’s decree on new requirements for selling SIM cards on February 9, the volume of sales has fallen 30 percent over the first thirteen days alone, according to them.
Recall, Tajik authorities introduced new requirements for selling SIM cards in February. If earlier, Tajikistan citizens had been allowed to buy up to two SIM cards in each of four cellular companies operating in the country, now they are allowed to buy only up two SIM cards in all. Only a type of passport introduced in 2014 can be used for registration of SIM cards.
The decree on this issue was signed by the President on February 9 and took effect on February 15 after it was published in Jumhuriyat newspaper, an official mouthpiece of the Government of Tajikistan. The communication service agency should re-register all SIM cars that were registered with use of an old type of passport within six months beginning on February 15.
