Number of Uzbek Internet Users Exceeds 2.01 Million

The number of Internet users in Uzbekistan exceeded 2.01 million, the Uzbek agency for communication and information (UzACI) said in a press release.

As of 1 January 2008, more than 780 entities were providing data transfer services, including Internet access. There are currently more than 6,000 active domains in the national domain zone UZ.

Mobile subscribers amounted to 5.888 million as of 1 January, having increased by 3.168 million during 2007.

The number of companies and organizations producing software in Uzbekistan was more than 210 at the end of last year.

According to UzACI, enterprises of the ICT sector provided services worth 882 billion soums last year, of which 517 billion soums or 58.6% were services to the population.

Source: UzDaily

Webstan note:
Number of Internet users in Uzbekistan in May 2007 [source: ITU] used to be 1,745,000 users or 6.6% of population. CIA.gov estimate of current population is 27,780,059 (July 2007), it means penetration rate has grown up by 0.6% in half-year up to 7.2%.

Belarus Software Company to Build a Search Engine for Kazakhstan

SoftInform sofware development company from Belarus opened its branch in Almaty, Kazakhstan in February 2008. One of its first goals of SoftInform is to gain image in Kazakhstan by developing a new search engine for users of Kazakhstan.

SoftInform has experience in developing search engines and information security products.

WiMax in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

AsiaInfo Internet Provider announced a start of development and testing of a new wireless broadband Internet access in Kyrgyzstan. It's a first WiMax technology in Kyrgyzstan.

First base station with 15km radius has already been installed in the capital - Bishkek, it's able to provide WiMax Internet access to the whole city. Approximate radius of Bishkek city is about 8 kilometers.



Price plans (converted to euro as of 24/02/2008):
1) Office - Eco
Installation 18 euro
Monthly payment 21 euro
Traffic limit: 250Mb international, 1Gb Kyrgyzstan
Extra traffic: 1 Gb international - 40 euro, 1Gb Kyrgyzstan - 1.5 euro
Connection speed: 64Kbps

2) Office - Optim
Installation 28 euro
Monthly payment 35.5 euro
Traffic limit: 650Mb international, 3Gb Kyrgyzstan
Extra traffic: 1 Gb international - 38 euro, 1Gb Kyrgyzstan - 1.4 euro
Connection speed: 128Kbps

3) Office - Pro
Installation 36 euro
Monthly payment 60 euro
Traffic limit: 1400Mb international, 8Gb Kyrgyzstan
Extra traffic: 1 Gb international - 36 euro, 1Gb Kyrgyzstan - 1.3 euro
Connection speed: 256Kbps

Official price-list:
AsiaInfo WiMax Price Plans (Russian language)

You can compare prices to mobile Internet providers here:
Mobile Internet Prices in Kyrgyzstan

Here are comparison-friendly price plans converted to USD:
1) Office - Eco
First month + installation: $58, i.e. 1Mb international - $0.23, 1Mb Kyrgyzstan - $0.06
Other months: 1Mb international - $0.13, 1Mb Kyrgyzstan - $0.03
Extra traffic: 1Mb international - $0.06, 1Mb Kyrgyzstan - $0.002

2) Office - Optim
First month + installation: $95, i.e. 1Mb international - $0.15, 1Mb Kyrgyzstan - $0.03
Other months: 1Mb international - $0.09, 1Mb Kyrgyzstan - $0.02
Extra traffic: 1Mb international - $0.05, 1Mb Kyrgyzstan - $0.002

3) Office - Pro
First month + installation: $142, i.e. 1Mb international - $0.10, 1Mb Kyrgyzstan - $0.02
Other months: 1Mb international - $0.06, 1Mb Kyrgyzstan - $0.01
Extra traffic: 1Mb international - $0.05, 1Mb Kyrgyzstan - $0.002

Some conclusions from AsiaInfo WiMax vs Mobile Internet comparison:

WiMax from AsiaInfo is always cheaper for Kyrgyzstan traffic.
WiMax from AsiaInfo is cheaper and faster if you need more than 1400Mb international or 8Gb Kyrgyzstan traffic.
Mobile Internet from Fonex or Nexi is faster and cheaper than AsiaInfo's Office-Eco and Office-Optim.
Mobile Internet has no traffic limit and distinction between international and Kyrgyzstan traffic.

Image from: JohnTP.com

Freedom of Speech in the Internet in Central Asia 2008

Reporters without Borders published new reports about freedom of speech and specifically Internet censorship. Here are reports on Central Asian countries:

Freedom of Speech in Kazakhstan [Internet cases]
Freedom of Speech in Kyrgyzstan
Freedom of Speech in Tajikistan [Internet cases]
Freedom of Speech in Turkmenistan [Internet cases]
Freedom of Speech in Uzbekistan [Internet cases]

Uzbek .uz Domains Reach 6000

Uzbek Telecom reported that .uz domains registrations reached 6,000 milestone in 14th of February.

It's an increase of 2,000 domains versus the same period last year. The total number of domains registered last year was 3,224, and 1,069 were removed.

There are seven official domain registrar companies in Uzbekistan. The registration fee is between USD 18 and USD 25.

Source: Telecom Paper

Mysterious NewsCentralAsia.net

Blogger from NewEurasia.net is suspicious about NewsCentralAsia.net portal.

Here is the article: A Mysterious Web Portal

Kyrgyzstan to Change Cyrillic to Latin

Bishkek Press Club asked Tashboo Jumagulov, the chairman of the National Commission of state language, and the parliamentarian Zainidin Kurmanov to give their comments about the discussions in the parliament about switching the Kyrgyz alphabet from Cyrillic to Roman. The chairman of the national commission says that sooner or later Kyrgyzstan should be using Roman letters, since all of Turkic people except Kyrgyzstan use Roman, and Kazakhstan will complete switching to it by 2010. In addition, continues Jumagulov, about 85% of Kyrgyzstan population speaks Turkic languages, and 80% of the world use Roman, and the most important thing, it is more appropriate to Kyrgyz language than Cyrillic. Kyrgyz people had been using Roman letters for 18 years before using Cyrillic. At the same time, only 10 countries in the world use Cyrillic and 9 of them are Slavic people.

The parliamentarian Kurmanov thinks that it is not the right time for Kyrgyzstan for changing its alphabet because it is quite expensive and there are more important problems to be solved. Though he notes that most Turkic countries are changing to Roman, and it is an inevitable process. Both of them also indicate that it is a matter of economic situation in Kyrgyzstan.

It seems that Kyrgyzstan can learn the experience of neighbor countries, carefully analyzing pros and cons of such a big transformation. Also, changing the alphabet can cause much confusion for Russian speaking people who study Kyrgyz language, and a huge misunderstanding between generations who taught different alphabets.

Source: NewEurasia.net

IT Cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan

Boris Yevgenyevich Atamanov, the head of Russian trade representative office in Uzbekistan told about perspectives and conditions of economic relations between Uzbekistan and Russia during his interview with Uzbekistan Today.

Here is his opinion about IT cooperation between the countries:

[...]

UT: The cooperation in high technology between our countries also intensifies. What projects are planned in this sector?

BA: - That’s true; information technology today along with fuel-energy complex is one of the most developing sectors of mutual cooperation.

The investment volume of Mobile Tele Systems public corporation (MTS) in Uzbekistan economy made up US$250 million. The Russian “VympelCom” also intends to invest US$150 million into cellular communications in Uzbekistan.

Russian Eventis Telecom Investment Company has invested US$5 million in internet services in Uzbekistan in 2007.

[...]

Full interview: Uzbekistan Today

Steppe Blog Guide: Blogging in Central Asia

Steppe Magazine contains wonderful photography and is beautiful designed. On top of that, the well written articles are an intelligent sharp selection of the current affairs in Central Asia. Last week I received the winter issue, and again it was a great read. It will be no surprise that I especially can recommend ‘Steppe Blog Guide‘, this article gives a nice and clear overview of the blogging scene in Central Asia.

Also on the web pages of the network of weblogs NewEurasia, you can find the online Central Asia Blog guide, a fine list of useful, relevant and lively weblogs.

Source: Digital Sketches

Article by NewEurasia.net: Central Asian Blogs

Free Internet for Disabled in Uzbekistan

USDB, Uzbek Society of Disabled People, started up a project that provides free Internet access for disabled in 6 out of 14 regions of Uzbekistan. But there are more regions planned to be covered.

This project gives a free Internet access possibility to about 2 million disabled people in Uzbekistan in total. It was realized with the help of by Uzbek Ministry for Foreign Economic Relations and Government of Japan.

Source: Infocom.uz (Russian language)
Representative photo is used from physorg.com

PCs with Mobile Broadband from Microsoft and MTS in Central Asia

Software giant Microsoft is working with Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MTS) to launch their subscription based program in in Armenia, Belarus, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

The two companies would now offer Windows-based PCs on a subscription basis in those countries similarly to the service provided by Microsoft in Mexico and Brazil. The partnership between them was announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

It's planned to start providing work stations with Windows Vista and built-in mobile broadband access by June 2008.

Source: TechWhack.com

K'cell Selects Telenity's Canvas Converged Messaging Solutions

Fastest Growing Operator in Kazakhstan Deploys Canvas SMSC and MMSC.

Telenity announced that K’cell deployed Telenity’s next generation IP-based Short Message Service Center, Canvas SMSC and Multimedia Messaging Service Center, Canvas MMSC in its GSM network.

Since its initial operation, K’cell has lead a key role in giving tone and direction to the rapid development and growth of the cellular market in Kazakhstan where mobile penetration is anticipated to grow 60% in the next three years. Through its visionary actions, K’cell was the first to launch GPRS/EDGE technologies, and millions of subscribers in Kazakhstan enjoyed such services as Mobile Internet, WAP, and MMS throughout the country. Currently K’cell is actively preparing for its 3G network implementation offering its subscribers revolutionary services such as Video-calls and Mobile Television. Within this project, K’cell carried out legacy and end-of-life replacements and installation of new equipment including higher capacity messaging servers, Canvas SMSC and Canvas MMSC, ready to support next generation services.

The success of SMS service is due to its very fast means of peer-to-peer communication and addition of new subscribers. Industry analysts estimate that by 2012, global SMS revenues will reach US$67 billion driven by 3.7 trillion messages. The ongoing growth of SMS requires wireless operators to continue to replace their legacy messaging network infrastructure and build out and upgrade to a more modular network environment.

“We were looking for a messaging solution that would resolve our traffic peak, maintenance cost, flexible routing and revenue assurance issues,” stated Veysel Aral, CEO at K’cell. “Telenity’s Canvas SMSC and Canvas MMSC met both our technical and business requirements and they are allowing us to get ready for our 3G network implementation with a sound IP-based architecture.”

“K’cell is a great example of a leading operator with the right vision and successful execution for the next generation mobile world,” says Dilip Singh, CEO at Telenity. “K’cell has rapidly grown to over six million subscribers and by aggressively expanding and replacing multiple legacy messaging platforms with the next generation converged integrated messaging platform, it’s ensuring that its customers experience the highest quality always-on messaging and innovative value added services”.

“With K’cell as our customer where nearly 100% of its SMS traffic goes through our Canvas SMSC, Telenity is now providing all affiliate companies of Fintur Holdings with it’s Canvas portfolio of next generation solutions, such as converged messaging, ringback tones, and value added services including video services,” said Serif Beykoz, General Manager, Telenity EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). “We are proud to have Fintur affiliates’ trust in and endorsement of our products.”

Canvas SMSC and Canvas MMSC are an integral part of Telenity’s converged messaging solutions that are all built on a common operating environment that avoids the silo nature of point solutions, while providing a common architecture and administrative environment for all value added services for current (2G/3G) and future IMS networks. Canvas SMSC and Canvas MMSC are high performance systems with a fault tolerant real time charging capability. They enhance revenues from person-to-person (P2P) and application-to-person (A2P) messaging with a modular, scalable next generation IP based architecture designed to save operators both CAPEX and OPEX.

Canvas SMSC and Canvas MMSC help operators to:

* Gracefully handle traffic peaks to assure additional/no lost revenues
* Increase ARPU by enabling more applications without system overload or service outage
* Reduce their maintenance costs with open standards based system infrastructure
* Ensure future network agnostic solution supporting both legacy and nextgen networks
* Add on to their current infrastructure yet grow thus preserving their investment
* Maximize their revenue assurance and minimize fraud with real time charging

Source: java.sys-con.com

Internet Cafes and Their Prices in Kyrgyzstan

In Kyrgyzstan, especially in the capital - Bishkek, you can find internet cafes almost at every corner, they are very popular among local citizens, even some people who have computers and Internet at home go to Internet cafes to get better speed for less money.


The best and only Internet cafe chain in Kyrgyzstan is called "Shmelle" ("Шмель") what means Bumblebee in Russian. For now it's the only real _brand_ among Kyrgyzstan Internet cafes and it's also increasingly popular.

Shmelle's price-list is very representative for all Internet cafes prices in Bishkek:

Internet (1 hour) 06:00-23:00 30 som ~ 0.60 euro
Internet (1 hour) 23:00-06:00 50 som ~ 1.00 euro
Microsoft Office (1 hour) 15 som ~ 0.30 euro

Photocopy (1 page) 1.5 som ~ 0.03 euro
Printing (1 page) 2 som ~ 0.04 euro

Floppy disc (1 disc) 20 som ~ 0.40 euro
CD (1 disc) 10 som ~ 0.20 euro
Burning CD (1 dics) 15 som ~ 0.30 euro


Looking at price-list you can see that some clients still use floppy discs and some come to the Internet cafes just to work with Microsoft Office application.

Some internet-cafes in Kyrgyzstan charge by bandwidth, so there clients usually say beforehand how much they want to spend at maximum. These Internet-cafes are extremely cheap for text data services like email or Google search, you may spend 5 som (0.10 euro) after half hour checking email, but if you plan to surf youtube it's better to go for Shmelle or similar ones.

You can also find Internet connection in computer game clubs, usually there are couple of computers dedicated for Internet users.

Here are the Shmelle's prices for Internet-telephony which is also widely used:
---------------------------------
Country ------------- Price (som)
---------------------------------
Afghanistan Mobile 16
Afghanistan Proper 16
Armenia Mobile 17
Armenia Proper 8
Armenia Yerevan city 7
Australia Mobile 14
Australia Proper 4
Austria Mobile 14
Austria Proper 4
Azerbaijan Baku city 10
Azerbaijan Mobile 14
Azerbaijan Proper 13
Bangladesh Mobile 11
Bangladesh Proper 13
Belarus Mobile 17
Belarus Proper 15
Belgium Brussels 3,5
Belgium Mobile 17
Brazil Mobile 10
Brazil Proper 7
Brazil Rio De Janeiro 5
Bulgaria Mobile - Globul 15
Bulgaria Proper 7
Canada 3
Cuba Proper 53
Cyprus Mobile 8
Cyprus Proper 8
Czech Republic Mobile 14
Czech Republic Proper 5
Denmark Mobile 16
Denmark Proper 4
Egypt Mobile 16
Egypt Proper 16
Finland Mobile 12
Finland Proper 4
France Mobile 11
France Paris 3,5
France Proper 3,5
Georgia Mobile - Geocell 12
Georgia Mobile - Iberiatel 14
Georgia Proper 7
Georgia Tbilisi city 7
Germany 3
Germany Mobile - All Carriers 16
Greece Mobile 12
Greece Proper 4
Hong Kong 4
Hungary Mobile 16
Hungary Proper 6
India 11
Indonesia Mobile 14
Indonesia Proper 9
Iran Mobile 11
Iran Proper 10
Iraq Baghdad 7
Iraq Mobile 16
Iraq Proper 14
Ireland Mobile 14
Ireland Proper 4
Israel Mobile 12
Israel Proper 4
Italy Mobile - All Carriers 18
Italy Mobile - Elsacom 18
Italy Mobile - H3G 24
Italy Mobile - TIM 16
Italy Mobile - Vodafone 15
Italy Mobile 18
Italy Proper 4
Jamaica Mobile - All Carriers 17
Jamaica Proper 12
Japan Mobile 15
Japan Proper 4
Jordan Mobile 18
Jordan Proper 13
Kazakhstan Almaty city 4
Kazakhstan Astana city 5
Kazakhstan Mobile 11
Kazakhstan Proper 9
Korea North Proper 28
Korea South Mobile 10
Korea South Proper 4
Kuwait Mobile 11
Kuwait Proper 11
Kyrgyzstan Bishkek city 4
Kyrgyzstan Mobile - BITEL 7
Kyrgyzstan Mobile - FONEX 7
Kyrgyzstan Mobile - KATEL 7
Kyrgyzstan Proper 7
Latvia Mobile 17
Latvia Proper 10
Lithuania Mobile 14
Lithuania Proper 7
Malaysia Mobile 5
Malaysia Proper 4
Moldova Mobile 16
Moldova Proper 9
Nepal Mobile 25
Nepal Proper 26
Netherlands Mobile 23
Netherlands Proper 3
Norway Mobile 14
Norway Proper 4
Oman Mobile 17
Oman Proper 17
Pakistan Islamabad 9
Pakistan Karachi 7
Pakistan Lahore 9
Pakistan Mobile 9
Pakistan Proper 9
Peru Mobile - Other Cities 19
Peru Proper 11
Philippines Mobile 16
Philippines Proper 13
Poland Mobile 18
Poland Proper 4
Portugal Mobile 18
Portugal Proper 18
Qatar Mobile 28
Qatar Proper 25
Romania Bucharest 12
Romania Mobile 17
Romania Proper 12
Russia Moscow city 3
Russia mobile 4
Russia Proper 4
Russia St. Petersburg city 3
Saudi Arabia Mobile 15
Saudi Arabia Proper 13
Saudi Arabia Riyadh 12
Spain Madrid 4
Spain Mobile - Telefonica 18
Swaziland Mobile 14
Swaziland Proper 14
Sweden Mobile - Vodafone 18
Sweden Proper 3,5
Switzerland Mobile 19
Switzerland Proper 4
Syria Mobile 16
Syria Proper 16
Taiwan Mobile 9
Taiwan Pager 4
Tajikistan Dushanbe city 9
Tajikistan Mobile 13
Tajikistan Proper 14
Turkey Mobile 12
Turkey Proper 5
Turkmenistan Mobile 12
Turkmenistan Proper 11
Ukraine Kiev city 8
Ukraine Kiev city, Ukrcom 8
Ukraine Kiev region 8
Ukraine Mobile - WellCOM 10
Ukraine Odessa city 8
Ukraine Odessa region 8
Ukraine Proper 9
United Arab Emirates Mobile 15
United Arab Emirates Proper 15
United Kingdom London 3
United Kingdom Mobile 16
United Kingdom Proper 3
United States Proper 3
Uzbekistan Mobile 11
Uzbekistan Proper 7
Uzbekistan Tashkent city 7

1 som ~ 0.02 euro

International calls prices with Internet-telephony are also beating all other international calls prices - landline, mobile, Internet-telephony from home.

Kazakhstan's "Samghau" to Pursue WiMAX Developments together with "Thales"

ASTANA. In Kazakhstan, the National Science and Technology Holding Company (Samghau) announced an agreement with Thales Group to jointly develop information and technology businesses.

In a press statement, Samghau said the companies “have agreed to cooperate and to develop strategic business relationships to achieve common interests in technology and commercial issues in the development of joint projects.”

The agreement is focussed on the areas of e-services for government, education and medicine. In addition, the companies will deploy solutions for broadband Internet, particularly with a focus on developing systems for WiMAX “at the local and national levels.”

Samghau is a company owned by the Republic of Kazakhstan, engaged in the development of numerous technologies. Thales Group is a global supplier of advanced information technology systems for aerospace, security and defence.

While Samghau did not release further details about its agreement with Thales, it dove-tails into the recently announced National Info-Kommunications Operator (NIKO) program, a USD 300 million effort that “will allow for the use and consolidation of existing [telecoms] infrastructure, the need to build new infrastructure, and the introduction and development of modern technologies for data transfer,” said a Samghau press release.

Last month, the chairman of the Agency for Information and Communications, Kuanyshbek Yessekeyev, underscored this initiative when he announced that broadband access is a key priority for Kazakhstan, and that technologies like WiMAX should help increase Internet penetration to over 20% of the population. According to the Agency, as of December 2007, Kazakhstan had 1.9 million Internet users, or 12.3% of the country, however the majority of these users suffer from low data rates.

For 2008, the Agency will demand that all Internet access providers in Kazakhstan must supply access to subscribers “at a rate not less than 256 Kbps.”
The telecommunications industry in Kazakhstan is in the process of liberalisation, and is now comprised of several operators, including: Kazakhtelecom (a subsidiary of Samghau), Transtelecom, KazTransCom, Arna, and Astel. Several companies have been awarded licenses for 3.5 GHz spectrum, including Kazakhtelecom, Nursat, Escape Wireless, Eventis Telecom and Meganet.

Kazakhtelecom has the most advanced infrastructure in Kazakhstan, and sources say it is planning to complete the deployment of its WiMAX network this year, which was partly financed by a USD 110 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In 2007 the company contracted with Alcatel-Lucent (a strategic partner and shareholder of Thales) to “deploy a Next Generation Network (NGN)…providing a full range of state-of-the-art advanced services based on IP technologies,” Alcatel-Lucent said in a press release.
A spokesman for Kazakhtelecom told WiMAX Day that it is presently building a “wireless broadcast access network on WiMAX technology for the cities Astana and Aktobe.”
In addition to local service providers, the Russian company Summa Telecom began operations in Kazakhstan last year, and in December 2007 acquired licenses for 2.5 GHz spectrum, according to a report in ComNews.

The Agency has said that additional licenses for 2.5 GHz spectrum may be auctioned in the future, but for the moment, licenses will be issued only on a “case-by-case” basis. An investigation of spectrum usage is on-going, and an Agency spokesman said that spectrum in Kazakhstan may be consolidated later this year, in an effort to ensure “alignment with ITU standards.”

Source: WiMAX Day

Facebook Usage Update. Uzbekistan

Here is the introductory post about Facebook usage statistics by Uzbekistan users:
Uzbekistan is in Top 75 Countries in Facebook

Uzbekistan is still the only Central Asian country in Top 75 countries using Facebook. Here you can see the growth of Uzbek Facebook users:

Population: 27 372 000 [Wikipedia, UN estimate, mid year 2007]
Internet Penetration: 1,745,000 users / 6.4% [May, 2007 ITU]
Facebook users 08/12/2007: 1 766 (rank 71; ~0,10% of all users)
Facebook users 08/01/2008: 2 069 (rank 70; ~0,12% of all users; +17.16%)
Facebook users 08/02/2008: 2 351 (rank 71; ~0,14% of all users; +13.63%)

More data: SEO & Web Marketing News. Canadian Blog

Internet Access and Exporting Correlation in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

"Information Economics and Policy" Journal recent issue (March, 2008) contains an interesting article by George Clarke from The World Bank, Has the internet increased exports for firms from low and middle-income countries.

Here is the abstract from the article:

Many commentators have suggested that the internet is one of the forces driving globalization. This paper assesses one aspect of these claims, looking at whether internet access appears to affect the export performance using data from enterprises in low and middle-income economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The paper finds a strong correlation between exporting and internet access at the enterprise level. Moreover, this correlation remains after controlling factors that might affect both exports and internet connectivity and self-selectivity.

Full article: here

News found on: Dr. John Rutledge on Technology, Policy, Economics, Investing, and Business

Video Web 2.0 Project in Kyrgyzstan

Here is the Web 2.0 project from Kyrgyzstan: www.video.kg. This "Kyrgyz YouTube" has a very good advantage for users from Kyrgyz Republic comparing to other video web-sites, because it is hosted locally and local traffic is much cheaper than international traffic in Kyrgyzstan.

New Web 2.0 Project in Kazakhstan: Newzzz.kz

Newzzz.kz is a new Web 2.0 project from Kazakhstan. It's Kazakh own digg.com.

“Newzzz.KZ provides social news in Kazakhstan. You publish everything interesting what is happening in Kazakhstan and around. You decide which news are worth reading” - says the offcial disclaimer.

Every registered user receives not only the right to publish premoderated posts, but also a chance to win 5,000 tenge. Premoderation screens off hooligans and promotes the best posts to the main page. On your left you can see a tag cloud. In order to attract users they exploit moral incentive in addition to the financial one - top users are ranked in a separate rating.

“Part of the site’s creators was born in Kazakhstan, and another part simply respects this country, … which unfortunately lacks good websites”, reads the “About the project” chapter - so, in fact, this is a non-Kazakh product.

Regretfully, in spite of great ideology of the project (much more efficient and up-to-date than, say, “Newsfactory” that has eaten away lots of donor’s money), which could create a real alternative to the traditional media and overcome the vacuum of information fro the country’s regions, so far the protal is overwhelmingly stuffed with the news that are not related to Kazakhstan at all, and that are not the posts actually - but mere reprints fro the mainstream media.

Site language: Russian

Source: NewEurasia.net

Link: Newzzz.kz - Only Your News (Kazakhstan)

Economist: Technology in Emerging Economies. Of Internet Cafés and Power Cuts.

Feb 7th 2008. From The Economist print edition

Emerging economies are better at adopting new technologies than at putting them into widespread use

Panos

WITHIN a few months China will overtake America as the country with the world's largest number of internet users. Even when you factor in China's size and its astonishing rate of GDP growth, this will be a remarkable achievement for what remains a poor economy. For the past three years China has also been the world's largest exporter of information and communications technology (ICT). It already has the same number of mobile-phone users (500m) as the whole of Europe.

China is by no means the only emerging economy in which new technology is being eagerly embraced. In frenetic Mumbai, everyone seems to be jabbering non-stop on their mobile phones: according to India's telecoms regulator, half of all urban dwellers have mobile- or fixed-telephone subscriptions and the number is growing by 8m a month. The India of internet cafés and internet tycoons produces more engineering graduates than America, makes software for racing cars and jet engines and is one of the top four pharmaceutical producers in the world. In a different manifestation of technological progress, the country's largest private enterprise, Tata, recently unveiled the “one lakh car”; priced at the equivalent of $2,500, it is the world's cheapest. Meanwhile, in Africa, people who live in mud huts use mobile phones to pay bills or to check fish prices and find the best market for their catch.

Yet this picture of emerging-market technarcadia is belied by parallel accounts of misery and incompetence. Last year ants ate the hard drive of a photographer in Thailand. Last week internet usage from Cairo to Kolkata was disrupted after something—probably an earthquake—sliced through two undersea cables. Personal computers have spread slowly in most emerging economies: three-quarters of low-income countries have fewer than 15 PCs per 1,000 people—and many of those computers are gathering dust.

And the feting of prominent technology projects in emerging economies is sometimes premature. Nicholas Negroponte, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has long been championing a $100 laptop computer, presented with most fanfare at the World Economic Forum in Davos two years ago. The laptop was supposed to sweep through poor countries, scattering knowledge and connectivity all around. But the project is behind schedule, the computer does not work properly and one prominent backer, Intel, a chipmaker, has pulled out.

So how well are emerging economies using new technology, really? Hitherto, judgments have had to be based largely on anecdotes. Now the World Bank has supplemented the snapshot evidence with more comprehensive measures.

Take-off to tomorrow, and to yesterday

The bank has drawn up indices based on the usual array of numbers: computers and mobile phones per head, patents and scientific papers published; imports of high-tech and capital goods. In addition, it uses things such as the number of hours of electricity per day and airline take-offs to capture the absorption of 19th- and 20th-century technologies. It tops this off with measures of educational standards and financial structure, which show whether technology companies can get qualified workers and enough capital. The results, laid out last month in the bank's annual Global Economic Prospects report, measure technological progress in its broadest sense: as the spread of ideas, techniques and new forms of business organisation.

Technology so defined is fundamental to economic advance. Without it, growth would be limited to the contributions of increases in the size of the labour force and the capital stock. With it, labour and capital can be used and combined far more effectively. So it is good news that the bank finds that the use of modern technology in emerging economies is coming on in leaps and bounds.

Between the early 1990s and the early 2000s, the index that summarises the indicators rose by 160% in poor countries (with incomes per person of less than about $900 a year at current exchange rates) and by 100% in middle-income ones ($900-11,000). The index went up by only 77% in industrialised countries (with average incomes above $11,000), where technology was more advanced to start with. Poor and middle-income nations, the bank concludes, are catching up with the West.

The main channels through which technology is diffused in emerging economies are foreign trade (buying equipment and new ideas directly); foreign investment (having foreign firms bring them to you); and emigrants in the West, who keep families and firms in their countries of origin abreast of new ideas. All are going great guns.

To me, to you, to me, to you

Start with trade. In the past ten years the ratio of poor countries' imports of high-tech products to their GDPs has risen by more than 50%. The ratio in middle-income countries has increased by over 70%. Capital goods (mainly industrial machinery) often embody new technology, and imports of these have increased faster in middle-income countries than in rich ones.

The gain in high-tech exports has been more striking still: emerging economies' share of global trade in such goods rose by 140% between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s. Some of the world's fastest-growing multinationals have sprung from such countries. These include Brazil's Petrobras, owner of some of the world's best deep-sea oil-drilling technology, and Mittal, a company of Indian origin that is now the world's largest steelmaker.

Relative to GDP, inflows of foreign direct investment to developing economies have increased sevenfold since the 1980s. In some countries, such as Hungary and Brazil, foreign firms account for half or more of all R&D spending by companies. This has had dramatic demonstration effects. Local French-language call centres in Morocco and Tunisia got going only after French operators began outsourcing to the Maghreb. A quarter of Czech managers said they learned about new technologies by watching foreign companies in the Czech Republic.

Emigrants are arguably the most important source of new ideas and capital. Granted, emigration can be costly: computer engineers, scientists and doctors, trained at public expense at home, go to work abroad. But money and skills flow back. Nearly half the $40 billion-worth of foreign direct investment in China in 2000 came from Chinese abroad. Remittances have doubled in the past ten years and now account for roughly 2% of developing countries'GDPs—more than foreign aid. An émigré banker returned to set up Bangladesh's Grameenphone banking network last year; it now has 15m customers. Bata, a Czech shoemaker, has been saved twice by foreign connections. Facing bankruptcy in the early 1900s, Tomas Bata went to America to learn about mass production. He came back and established branches from India to Poland. After the second world war his son fled to Canada to escape the communists. He returned in 1989 and used late-20th-century know-how to expand in eastern Europe and open factories in China and India.

The upshot is that technology is spreading to emerging markets faster than it has ever done anywhere. The World Bank looked at how much time elapsed between the invention of something and its widespread adoption (defined as when 80% of countries that use a technology first report it; see chart 1). For 19th-century technologies the gap was long: 120 years for trains and open-hearth steel furnaces, 100 years for the telephone. For aviation and radio, invented in the early 20th century, the lag was 60 years. But for the PC and CAT scans the gap was around 20 years and for mobile phones just 16. In most countries, most technologies are available in some degree.

But the degree varies widely. In almost all industrialised countries, once a technology is adopted it goes on to achieve mass-market scale, reaching 25% of the market for that particular device. Usually it hits 50%. In the World Bank's (admittedly incomplete) database, there are 28 examples of a new technology reaching 5% of the market in a rich country; of those, 23 went on to achieve over 50%. In other words, if something gets a foothold in a rich country, it usually spreads widely.

In emerging markets this is not necessarily so. The bank has 67 examples of a technology reaching 5% of the market in developing countries—but only six went on to capture half the national market. Where it did catch on, it usually spread as quickly as in the West. But the more striking finding is that the spread was so rare. Developing countries have been good at getting access to technology—and much less good at putting it to widespread use.

As a result, technology use in developing countries is highly concentrated. Almost three-quarters of China's high-tech trade comes from just four regions on the coast. More than two-thirds of the stock of foreign investment in Russia in 2000 was in Moscow and its surroundings. Whereas half of India's city-dwellers have telephones, little more than one-twentieth of people in the countryside do.

Not only is there a technology gap between emerging economies and the West, and another within emerging economies: there are also surprising differences between apparently comparable emerging economies. For example, China imports and exports far more high-tech goods than India does and its exports are as technologically advanced as a country three times as rich. India and Bangladesh are neighbours with comparable levels of GDP per head. But electricity losses in India are about 30% of output; in Bangladesh, they are below 10%. And although Africa as a whole has low levels of mobile-phone use, in six countries (Botswana, Gabon, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone and South Africa) more than 30% of the population uses them.

The question is how much this unevenness matters. It is tempting to say, not much. What really counts, say techno-optimists, is that technology should get a toehold. Once it does, its grip will strengthen. So although only 6% of India's rural poor have phones, urban folk were at the same stage in 1998—and look what happened (see chart 2). Optimism about diffusion seems all the more plausible because of leapfrogging. Technologies such as mobile phones can be dropped into developing countries without the slog of building expensive infrastructure (such as land lines) and can circumvent the failings of old 19th- and 20th-technology. Poor countries will leapfrog into the next generation.

Fast or forget it

But this view—essentially, that technological diffusion is a problem that will take care of itself—may be too sanguine. The evidence from successful emerging markets is that if they absorb a new technology they usually do so fairly quickly. The corollary is that if a technology is not diffused promptly, it may at best be diffused only slowly and incompletely.

Judging by the World Bank's index, that is what seems to be happening in some places. As a general rule, technological achievement rises fastest in poor and middle-income countries and then levels off as these countries approach Western living standards (see chart 3). But now compare Latin America and Europe. Eastern Europe is following the path taken by America and western Europe a few years before. But in Latin America the slope flattens at lower levels than elsewhere.

The region has less installed bandwidth and fewer broadband subscribers than poorer East Asia, and not many more internet users or PCs. High-tech exports account for less than 7% of the total in Argentina and Colombia, against one-third in East Asia. In Chile and Brazil less than 2% of the business workforce is in ICT. This relative technophobia probably reflects years of inward-looking economic policies, import substitution and disappointing education systems. Here, slow technological dispersal may not be just the result of a time lag. It may be evidence of more fundamental problems.

Broadly, two sets of obstacles stand in the way of technological progress in emerging economies. The first is their technological inheritance. Most advances are based on the labours of previous generations: you need electricity to run computers and reliable communications for modern health care, for instance. So countries that failed to adopt old technologies are at a disadvantage when it comes to new ones. Mobile phones, which require no wires, are a prominent exception.

The adoption of older technologies varies widely among countries at apparently similar stages of development. Soviet central planners loved to build electricity lines everywhere; the result is that ex-communist countries enjoy near-universal access to electricity (an extremely rare example of a beneficial legacy from communism). Latin American countries had no such background and as a result consume only about half as much electricity per person as eastern Europe and central Asia.

This partly explains the patchiness in countries' technological achievements overall. Call centres in Kenya, for example, pay more than ten times as much per unit of bandwidth as do rivals in India, because India's fibre-optic cable system is far better and cheaper. So sometimes you cannot leapfrog. As countries get richer, older technology constraints do not always fall away. It depends in part on how governments organise basic infrastructure like transport and communications.

The other set of problems has to do with the intangible things that affect a country's capacity to absorb technology: education; R&D; financial systems; the quality of government. In general, developing countries' educational levels have soared in the past decade or so. Middle-income countries have achieved universal primary-school enrolment and poor countries have increased the number of children completing primary school dramatically. Even so, illiteracy still bedevils some middle-income countries and many poor ones.

A similar pattern can be seen with R&D. Emerging economies spend less on R&D than rich ones: rich countries spend 2.3% of GDP on R&D, East Asians 1.4%, and Latin America 0.6%. Also important, though, is who spends the money; and this also varies considerably. East Asia's pattern is similar to the West's: companies spend most of the money and do most of the research. In eastern Europe and Latin America, by contrast, the government is the largest source of finance, and in Latin America universities do the largest share of the work. Sometimes government-supported research is fine: it triggered South Korea's technology boom in the 1980s. But in general, companies tend to be the most efficient and effective promoters of technology (mobile phones are a case in point).

And in rich countries, high-tech-firms get money from banks, stockmarkets and venture capitalists in ways that emerging-market entrepreneurs can only dream of. Here, and in government policy towards technology firms—meaning everything from trade openness to product standards—there has been little catch-up with the West. In Kenya, flower-growing counts as a technology-improving activity because it requires fertilisers, irrigation, greenhouses and just-in-time delivery. The damage wrought by political chaos (see article) is a reminder that technology is far more fragile in poor countries than in the West.

Yet it would be wrong to be gloomy about the technological outlook of emerging economies. The channels of technology transfer have widened enormously over the past ten years. Technological literacy has risen, especially among the young. But all this has helped emerging economies mainly in the first stage: absorption. The second stage—diffusion—has so far proved much more testing.

Source: Economist.com

Golden Camel Awards Web-site. Part 1. Food and Markets

Link: Golden Camel Awards, Part 1: Food and Markets

WordPress Is Now Available in Kazakh Language

6 February, 2008

The free blog publishing software WordPress, which can be translated into any language in order to increase its accessibility, has been translated into Kazakh by Kazakh bloggers. The number of people blogging in Kazakh has grown significantly because there is a group on Google that explains how it works (http://groups.google.com/group/kazakh-bloggers?lnk=gschg). A blog platform created in 2003, WordPress facilitates the emergence of communities of bloggers using the same interface.

Source: Reporters Without Borders

Uzbekistan Was The Fastest Growing Mobile Market in Whole Eurasia in 2007

In its "Mobile Freakonomics" article Createlf web-site mentions Uzbekistan as the fastest growing mobile market in Eastern Europe in 2007 with 130% year-on-year growth in the last quarter and Bhutan as the fastest growing in Asia reaching over 100% year-on-year growth in some quarters of the year.

Uzbek Regulator Allows Vimpelcom to Acquire Golden Telecom

TASHKENT, Feb 01, 2008 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX)

The State Committee of Uzbekistan for Demonopolisation, Support of Competition and Entrepreneurship of the Republic of Uzbekistan has approved the acquisition of 100 per cent shares of Golden Telecom by the Russian VimpelCom.

Golden Telecom has a more than 54 per cent share in Buzton JV (Tashkent) one of the leading alternative communication operators in Uzbekistan. Other founders of Buzton are the national operator UzbekTelecom and the United State's NCI Projects International Inc. VimpelCom in turn has the second largest share in Unitel LLC, a mobile operator in Uzbekistan.

The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) of Russia has allowed VimpelCom to sign the deal on the acquisition of Golden Telecom. On 14 January the agency approved the petition of its subsidiary, Lillian Acquisition, to acquire the Russian subdivisions of Golden Telecom.

For the deal to be completed, VimpelCom had to get the approvals of the state antimonopoly agencies of the countries where Golden Telecom operated. Two of them are the Central Asian nations of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

The Antimonopoly Committee of Uzbekistan said VimpelCom submitted a request for the acquisition of Golden Telecom on 18 January 2008. The Uzbek regulatory agency was the first to respond: according to the legislation of Uzbekistan, the decision on the request had to be made within 10 working days from the day of submission.

VimpelCom plans to submit the same type of request to the authorised agency of Kazakhstan as soon as possible. The agency should receive the application within the next seven days. According to Kazakh regulations the authorised agency is allowed 30 days to produce a decision, but this period may be extended to 60 days, Golden Telecom said.

Apart from the two Central Asian countries, VimpelCom also submitted a request to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine on 17 January. The regulatory agency is allowed to prolong the time allowed for consideration of the request for as long as three months, to study the details of the deal.

On 18 January VimpelCom sent the shareholders of Golden Telecom an official offer to acquire 100 per cent of their shares at the price of US$105 for a share. The offer is valid until 15 February 2008. In order to complete the deal VimpelCom will have to collect 63.3 per cent of GT's shares. For this, it only needs to agree with the main shareholders of the Holding: Russian Altimo (26.6 per cent), Norwegian Telenor (18.3 per cent), RosTelecom (11 per cent), and Inure Company (8 per cent).

After the closure of the offer, the unsold shares of Golden Telecom will be converted into the right of acquisition for US$105 for a share and annulled.

The acquisition of Golden Telecom by VimpelCom (Beeline) will have no effect either on future acquisitions of the latter nor the size and the policy of its dividends. This was stressed by the Director General of VimpelCom Alexander Izosimov during a telephone conference. He said that the low level of his company's debt allows it to continue to make new acquisitions if needed.

Izosimov noted that the acquisition of the Golden telecom would allow VimpelCom to save about US$470 million within the next three years through the savings on capital investments and operational expenses. Moreover, as a result of the integration of the two companies VimpelCom's revenue is likely to grow not only through the inflow of new clients, but also through additional payments for new services which will be made available to the existing clients after the acquisition, he added.

According to Uralsib analysts, the results of the telephone conference with Izosimov turned out to be as expected, and consequently, the experts have not changed their opinion that the deal is unlikely to bring VimpelCom any income growth, RBK wrote. At the same time, the businesses of VimpelCom and Golden Telecom may become mutually complementary, as VimpelCom holds a strong position in the retail services market, and Golden Telecom in the corporate services market.

The VimpelCom Group includes mobile operators providing services in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, and Armenia. The licenses of the VimpelCom group of companies for the provision of GSM and 3G standard services cover the territory populated by some 250 million people. The Norwegian Telenor company has 29.9 per cent voting shares in VimpelCom and Altimo (formerly Alfa-Telecom) 44 per cent.

Golden Telecom is the supplier of integrated telecommunication and Internet services in the largest cities of Russia and the CIS, that have their own resources and communication facilities. The company's main shareholders are Alfa-Group (29.5 per cent) and Norway's Telenor (20.2 per cent).

(UzReport)

Source: TradingMarkets.com

Internet Speed Comparison in Central Asian Countries

On SpeedTest.net you can find out the speed of Internet in almost any country:

Internet Speed in Kazakhstan
Internet Speed in Kyrgyzstan
Internet Speed in Uzbekistan

On the web-site you can also compare speed specifying city or country area/region you are interested in.

Internet speed comparison for Tajikistan and Turkmenistan is not available at the moment.

Kazakhstan PM Underlined Importance of Kazakh Content on the Internet

ASTANA. January 28.

Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov ordered to continue work on modernization of the state mass media and improvement of competitiveness of the domestic media market at today’s extended session of the Culture and Information Ministry’s collegium.
“It is strategically important to increase the Kazakh content in Internet network. It is crucial to use the potential of culture and information for formation of Kazakhstan’s image and confirmation its new role at the regional and international levels,” the Kazakh PM stressed.

Author: Aigul Tulekbayeva, KAZINFORM

Kazakh Prime-Minister Charged “Kazpost” JSC to Actively Implement an Internet Network

ASTANA. January 31

Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov has charged "Kazakhstan Engineering" to activate its work.

According to the Kazakh PM, this company has a number of possibilities for widening its activity. In fact, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered to open new productions in Kazakhstan within the frame of large public purchases.

“Kazpost” JSC should actively implement an Internet network. A role of the post is growing all over the world.

“It is an ideal instrument of Internet development, including internet-trade,” the Kazakh PM uttered.

Mr. Massimov instructed KEGOC JSC (Kazakh Energy Grid Operating Company) and “Samruk-energo” JSC to provide energy supply of the southern regions.

“Kaztransmorflot” fails to stand up to business competition with other companies, working on the Caspian Sea.

“Air Astana” should renew its airpark as soon as possible.

In a whole, as reported earlier, “Samruk” State Assets Management Holding should provide transparency and accountability of its companies.

Author: Aigul Tulekbayeva, KAZINFORM