There may be a promising development in the offing for Tajikistan’s long-beleaguered internet users and the rumor is that all it took for it to happen was the president experiencing embarrassing connection trouble on a recent conference call, Eurasianet reported on February 3.
Since February 1, mobile internet service providers have reportedly been sending SMSs to their clients to inform them that connection speeds are poised to increase dramatically.
One company, Babilon-Mobile, has said that customers paying for a contract providing them with speeds of 512 kilobits per second, for example, will soon be upgraded to 1 megabit per second.
Another company, Tcell, is slashing the prices for its internet packages. Where a 1-gigabyte data package used to cost the equivalent of around US$3.00, the rate will now be closer to US$1.70. A 20-gigabyte package will set customers back by around $11.50.
Megafon Tajikistan reportedly offers 20 gigabytes for just under US$9.00.
A source at one mobile telecommunications company told Eurasianet on condition of anonymity that they and industry peers got the word to act after President Emomali Rahmon experienced trouble staying online during last month’s Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) virtual summit
“During the meeting, his connection dropped out about seven to 10 times. The president was angered by the quality of the internet and reprimanded the head of the communications service,” the source told Eurasianet.
