Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
2.4.4 Central Asia
In Central Asia, privatization and deregulation of telecommunications have
occurred much more slowly than in most of the world, and are often handicapped
by governments fearful of losing control over a vital means of information control.
In 2007, the Kazakh operator Kazakhtelecom was the region's first state-owned
company to actually offer its shares for sale, but only 4.1 % have been sold. The
Kyrgyz government has gradually liberalized its telecommunications sector, which
improved the affordability of internet access there and made use of cyberspace
more attractive and profitable; however, as OpenNet Initiative (
2010a
) points out,
''Kyrgyzstan is an effectively cyberlocked country dependent on purchasing
bandwidth from Kazakhstan and Russia.'' Some governments cling to the older
model of state-owned telecommunications, such as Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, in
which UzbekTelecom retains a legal monopoly status even as it is being priv-
atized. In 2001, following a brief window of privatization that opened with
independence in 1991, Turkmenistan granted a monopoly over data services to
TurkmenTelecom, driving several smaller internet service providers (ISPs) out of
business.
As in most of the world, the most active Central Asian netizens tend to be
young and well educated, including students, government employees, and those
working for large corporations. In Kyrgyzstan, one-half of users are students and
75 % are under age 30. Ninety percent of Uzbeki users have a post-secondary
education (Wei and Kolko
2005
). Not surprisingly, often elites situated in urban
areas tend to exhibit the highest rates of connectivity. In Uzbekistan, for example,
85 % of netizens live in urban areas (Wei and Kolko
2005
), 70 % of whom are
concentrated in Tashkent (Privacy International
2003
; OpenNet Initiative
2010c
).
In Kyrgyzstan, 77 % of internet users are located in Bishkek. In Turkmenistan,
95 % of users are in the capital, Ashgabat (OpenNet Initiative
2010b
). In Ky-
rgyzstan, the majority of Internet users depend on cafes (Privacy International
2003
; Srinivasan and Fish
2009
). In Uzbekistan, roughly 40 % of users do so from
their homes, 40 % use their place of work, but 30 % use cybercafés (OpenNet
Initiative
2010c
). In Kazakhstan, half of users have internet access from their
homes. In Afghanistan, cybercafés are essentially confined to the airport in Kabul
and a few luxury hotels. In Tajikstan, a network of 400 cafes are the dominant
points of entry into cyberspace; the average café costs $US 0.73/h, compared to the
national minimum salary of $US 7.00 per month. However, strict licensing
requirements have reduced the number of Tajik cybercafés. In Turkmenistan,
private internet cafes are illegal, although the government monopoly Turkmen-
Telecom operates 15 cafes in the country (OpenNet Initiative
2010b
). Prices in
these cafes in 2007 averaged $US 4/h (compared to an average income of $US
100/month), although after President Berdymukhamedov reprimanded the Minis-
ter of Communications for such high charges they dropped to $US 2/h. In 2008
TurkmenTelecom began to offer dial-up home access, but at such high prices it is
unaffordable to most residents, an implicit form of censorship designed to limit
