Central Asian Internet Penetration from World Bank

Today Google announced public data available from World Bank integrated into Google Search.

Below you can see graph with Internet penetration in Central Asian countries:



Link: Internet Penetration in Central Asia 1997-2008

Internet penetration seems to be several times higher, thus more optimistic, comparing to data from ITU for all countries (see also 'at a glance' articles of this blog for each country: KZ KG TJ TM UZ).

Facebook reached Odnoklassniki in Kazakhstan?

In Google Trends, tool which compares search volume for given queries, you can see that Facebook has now caught Odnoklassniki by Google search queries numbers in Kazakhstan.

As you can see on the graph Odnoklassniki queries emerged in the country in November 2007 since then it boomed until middle 2008. Facebook raised in October 2008 and started to catch up with Russian social network in September 2009.


Link: Google Trends - Facebook vs Odnoklassniki in Kazakhstan

Top cities in Kazakhstan where Odnoklassniki is more popular:
1. Kustanay*
2. Koshetau*
3. Karaganda*
4. Pavlodar*
5. Astana
6. Chimkent*
7. Almaty*
8. Atyrau

* - more queries than Facebook

Top languages for Odnoklassniki queries:
1. Russian
2. Kazakh
3. English

Top cities in Kazakhstan where Facebook is more popular:
1. Atyrau*
2. Astana*
3. Chimkent
4. Almaty

* - more queries than Odnoklassniki

Top languages for Facebook queries:
1. Turkish
2. Italian
3. English
4. Kazakh
5. Russian

From language data possible guess could be that Turkish expats are ones of the heaviest Facebook users in Kazakhstan. What is your opinion on that? Why do you think Italian is also so high? Please add your comments below.

What about other Central Asian countries? Unfortunately there is not enough search volume for Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. There is some data for 2009 for Uzbekistan though. Odnoklassniki seem to dominate for now.


Link: Google Trends - Facebook vs Odnoklassniki in Uzbekistan

At a glance:

Odnoklassniki
Launched: 2006/03
Registered users: 30'000'000 (2009/02)
http://blog.quintura.com/2009/02/26/odnoklassnikiru-hits-30-million-registered-users/?owa_from=feed&owa_sid=

Facebook
Launched: 2004/02/04
Registered users: 100'000'000 (2008/08)
Active users: 150'000'000 (2009/01)

IT Cooperation Between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan

Yerlan Durmagambetov, the deputy chairman of the Agency for Information and Communications of Kazakhstan gave an interview to S. Babayeva, Azerbaijan's Trend Capital news agency journalist.

Question: What would you recommend Azerbaijan for the establishment of efficient model of Electronic Government?

Answer: The development of the information and communication technologies has become an important factor in the world community’s life. Their wider applications have improved the public life and lead to the revolutionary progress in the economic, social, culture and other spheres. One of the major tasks set for Kazakhstan is the establishment of information society. This task is being successfully fulfilled in Kazakhstan, thanks to the implementation of a program on development of Electronic Government allocated for the period till 2010. At present, measures to form an infrastructure of Electronic Governments have been realized in Kazakhstan.

The action plan on formation of infrastructure of the Electronic Government was developed in consideration with the experience of countries which have considerable achievements in this sphere – Korea, Singapore, India, Estonia, the United States, Italy and Germany.

The application of Electronic Government in Azerbaijan was carried out in four stages:

- Information – publication and dissemination of information (2005-2006);

- Interactive – interactive services rendered through straight and reverse interaction between the state bodies and citizens (2006-2007);

- Transaction – transactional interaction through implementing financial operations through the government portal (2007 – 2008);

- Formation of information society, with the domination of electronic services over papers, which will cover the full life-cycle of the mankind (2010 and after).

At present, actions are taken to realize a program on decreasing the information inequality in Kazakhstan in 2007–2009. The key task of the program is to carry out full scale actions for the computer literacy of the population and training of qualified teachers and IT specialists. Incredible work is being done in Kazakhstan currency with respect to make computers and Internet more accessible. Thus, tariffs for access to the international network are decreased and measures to develop the Kazakh segment of the world network are taken. Within the framework of formation of the Electronic Government, twelve IТ-projects were implemented- with seven already set for implementations.

An important aspect in formation of the Electronic Government is the program management structure. The experience of Denmark, Canada and Korea shows that this cooperation between the administrations in charge of distributing funds, contributes in the development of principles, enabling to cover a range of aspects regarding the Electronic Government. We advise Azerbaijan to study the experience of South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore for successful building of the Electronic Government.

Question: What major projects could Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan carry out jointly in the near future?

Answer: At the moment, the project on the construction of the Subsea Fiber Optic cable via the Caspian Sea from Siyazan to Aktau is at the initial phase. It is also possible to carry out projects on exchange of experience in the implementation of the Electronic Government projects

Question: How will the countries be benefited from the realization of project on construction of Caspian segment of the Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic cable?

Answer: The Communications Administrations have determined managers under this project. KAzTransKom, one of the big operators of city and international communications acts from the part of Kazakhstan. At present, the procedures for the selection of a consultant on development of feasibility study of the project are underway.

Every party has its interest in the implementation of the project. Kazakhstan is particularly interested in designing alternative line to the European countries and increasing its transit potential.

Source: Capital.TrendAz.com

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.