The others lease lines and cables from the state-controlled top-tier ISP KyrgyzTelecom.
The government has a major stake (50 percent) in Elcat, another top-tier ISP. All other
ISPs are private except for the research and educational networks. All ISPs are based in
the capital and very few of them operate in other regions. The majority of ISPs connect
to the Russian portion of the Internet by fiber-optic cable. In addition to its major
Russian connection, KyrgyzTelecom has built external connection ports to China
and Kazakhstan. On a number of occasions, KyrgyzTelecom has been affected by
KazakhTelecom’s filtering practices, since it is buying international traffic from the foreign provider. For Internet data transfer, two of the largest ISPs—AsiaInfo and Totel—
use fiber-optic lines financed by the Soros Foundation and extend parts of the infrastructure themselves where necessary. There are a number of Internet cafe ´s in the capital, and although Internet cafe ´s can be found in the regions, the connection is often
unreliable.
The Soros Foundation also financed the national Internet Traffic Exchange Point
(IXP). This IXP is governed by the Association of Telecommunications Operators and
distributes local traffic among the local ISPs. The international Internet bandwidth in
the country is 300 Mbps, and the most popular means for Internet access is through
dial-up connection. Leased lines with transfer speeds of up to 64 Kbps are widely available for businesses, while higher-speed broadband access lines are very limited. 12 A private company, AsiaInfo, administers the country’s top-level domain zone ‘‘.kg.’’ 13
There are around 1,500 top-level domain names registered in the Kyrgyz Internet
zone. The two most-visited Web sites are local media sites, while most information
sought online is education related.
In recent years, the mobile sector in Kyrgyzstan has grown significantly. As a result,
the government has expressed its intention to exert control over the mobile services.
The number of mobile users in 2006 topped 1,000,000 (or 20 percent of the population), which is an increase of almost 50 percent compared to the previous year. As
of September 2007, there were five mobile operators in the country. The dominant
operator is Bitel GSM, which owns 78 percent of the market. The other operators,
MegaCom, FONEX, and Katel, have a limited presence with 10 percent, 8 percent,
and 4 percent, respectively. 14 A new operator, NEXI (offering CDMA service), became
active in 2007.
Overall, state regulation in the communications sector created favorable conditions
for establishing a competitive communications market. By 2008, the government
issued 429 licenses to over 280 telecommunication companies.
VoIP licenses are readily available. To obtain a license, companies are required to
contribute 20 million som (approximately USD 517,000) to a national IT development
fund. Once an applicant obtains the license, they are licensed as an operator, or can
resell their services to other companies. There are no restrictions on the provision of
P2P services in the country.
194
Kyrgyzstan
The government has a major stake (50 percent) in Elcat, another top-tier ISP. All other
ISPs are private except for the research and educational networks. All ISPs are based in
the capital and very few of them operate in other regions. The majority of ISPs connect
to the Russian portion of the Internet by fiber-optic cable. In addition to its major
Russian connection, KyrgyzTelecom has built external connection ports to China
and Kazakhstan. On a number of occasions, KyrgyzTelecom has been affected by
KazakhTelecom’s filtering practices, since it is buying international traffic from the foreign provider. For Internet data transfer, two of the largest ISPs—AsiaInfo and Totel—
use fiber-optic lines financed by the Soros Foundation and extend parts of the infrastructure themselves where necessary. There are a number of Internet cafe ´s in the capital, and although Internet cafe ´s can be found in the regions, the connection is often
unreliable.
The Soros Foundation also financed the national Internet Traffic Exchange Point
(IXP). This IXP is governed by the Association of Telecommunications Operators and
distributes local traffic among the local ISPs. The international Internet bandwidth in
the country is 300 Mbps, and the most popular means for Internet access is through
dial-up connection. Leased lines with transfer speeds of up to 64 Kbps are widely available for businesses, while higher-speed broadband access lines are very limited. 12 A private company, AsiaInfo, administers the country’s top-level domain zone ‘‘.kg.’’ 13
There are around 1,500 top-level domain names registered in the Kyrgyz Internet
zone. The two most-visited Web sites are local media sites, while most information
sought online is education related.
In recent years, the mobile sector in Kyrgyzstan has grown significantly. As a result,
the government has expressed its intention to exert control over the mobile services.
The number of mobile users in 2006 topped 1,000,000 (or 20 percent of the population), which is an increase of almost 50 percent compared to the previous year. As
of September 2007, there were five mobile operators in the country. The dominant
operator is Bitel GSM, which owns 78 percent of the market. The other operators,
MegaCom, FONEX, and Katel, have a limited presence with 10 percent, 8 percent,
and 4 percent, respectively. 14 A new operator, NEXI (offering CDMA service), became
active in 2007.
Overall, state regulation in the communications sector created favorable conditions
for establishing a competitive communications market. By 2008, the government
issued 429 licenses to over 280 telecommunication companies.
VoIP licenses are readily available. To obtain a license, companies are required to
contribute 20 million som (approximately USD 517,000) to a national IT development
fund. Once an applicant obtains the license, they are licensed as an operator, or can
resell their services to other companies. There are no restrictions on the provision of
P2P services in the country.
194
Kyrgyzstan