by Kira Kramer
Turkmenistan decided to provide wider Internet access and develop high-tech solutions with a $273 million loan provided for this purpose by the Islamic Development Bank.
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov called for designing a program to develop the Internet and electronic systems, pursuant to which 5-G networks and ID cards for residents are expected to be available and instructed to design “Digital Turkmenistan” program to eliminate “digital discrepancy” for household use.
It should be emphasized though that the Internet is so underdeveloped in the country that “Turkmenistan Airlines” do not have their own website and officials use notebooks and pens to make notes of endless decrees issued by the head of the state.
The Internet development for the country’s development
On 16 November 2017 Turkmenistan adopted a seven-year Turkmenistan’s social and economic development program for 2018-2024, which is impossible to be implementated without the use of state-of-the-art technologies.
After that the authorities decided to facilitate the Internet development in the country and President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov charged Deputy Chairpersons of Cabinet of Ministers, Parliament members and the Academy of Sciences with the task of preparing a specialized program to develop the Internet and electronic systems in Turkmenistan.
The state information agency TDH reported that the Data-centre, one-stop shop of state services provided to the residents and even the Innovative Information Centre for designing e-leaning methods are scheduled to be established in Turkmenistan.
The only state-run cellular provider “Altyn Asyr” operating in Turkmenistan was instructed to “ensure the widespread provision to Turkmenistan residents of 3G and 4G internet connection and, in the short term, 5G networks”.
As regards the Internet, average data transmission speed in the capital, according to TDH, is currently 20Gb per second, but in the short-term perspective is expected to increase to 100 Gb/s; in the velayat centres the transmission speed will reach about 40 Gb/s, in the etrap centres data will be transmitted with a speed of up to 10 Gb/s and between etrap centres and farmers’ associations up to 4Gb/s.
Moreover, the authorities decided to introduce ID cards (an identification card which contains the holder’s biometric data) in Turkmenistan. The rationale behind introducing the new requirement is that this initiative was launched to “ensure that residents of Turkmenistan will use the full range of electronic services provided.”
To provide increased Internet access to residents, a decision was made to launch import substitution manufacturing of Wi-Fi routers, modems and IP-tuner in Turkmenistan.
Vacant houses funded from the budget and the loan for the Internet development
“The bulk of the grand project “modernization of the Internet system” carried out by Turkmenistan’s Communications Ministry will be funded by the Islamic Development Bank”, — TDH reported.
It turns out that a loan of $273 million, which is quite a small amount by Turkmen standards, for development of the Internet was taken at the time when marble buildings and airports for a total amount of $50 billion (!) are funded from the federal budget.
“At the extended Cabinet session held on 26 January President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov reported that about $50 billion are currently being invested into the national economy. About 1700 major facilities for a total value of over $42 billion are under construction in Turkmenistan”, — state media outlets reported.
If this amount is divided by 1700 buildings, it turns out that the average value of one object amounts to $25 million.Roughly speaking, the President could have cancelled the construction of only 10 out 1700 facilities to foster the Internet development in Turkmenistan, for instance shopping and entertainment centers, the number of which in Ashgabat alone exceeds the demand.
Some shopping centres are empty and are lit only as a decorative architectural element.
The loan agreement was signed in November 2017, according to Turkmenistan’s Vnesheconombank (The State Bank for Foreign Economic Relations). The loan is provided for a period of 20 years but it is unknown what Turkmenistan is expected to accomplish once the loan is disbursed and how the project success will be evaluated.
“Digital Turkmenistan”
The loan was quickly disbursed.At the session of the Cabinet of Ministers held on 9 February Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov charged the Academy of Sciences with the task of designing the state program “Digital Turkmenistan” to “foster the development of information and communication technologies and increase the contribution of the sector into Turkmenistan’s GDP as well as to eliminate “digital discrepancy” in household use for residents of velayats, towns and villages”.
According to TDH, which quotes the head of the state, “residents of Turkmenistan have good Internet access, but high-speed Internet access needs to be provided in a more efficient and accessible manner”.
The President also emphasized “sizeable opportunities are in place to develop digital infrastructure in Turkmenistan with the help of telemedicine, computer and telecommunications technologies owing to rendering additional electronic online counseling and e-leaning services”.
Virtual reality and bitter reality
While the Turkmen authorities officially claim that they are moving towards 5G networks and telemedicine, the speed of unlimited Internet access for a fee of 300 manats ($86 using the official rate) for individual subscribers amounts to 2 Mb/s.
For corporate clients the Internet connection speed can reach 10 Mb/s with the monthly fee of $4.000 (!) for an unlimited Internet access package. With a good, by Turkmen standards, salary of 1200 manats ($343 using the official rate) and the lowest Internet connection speed in the region, e-learning is obviously out of question.
Let’s make a rough estimate.If we divide the announced 20 Gb/s or 20 000 Mb/s accessible for all residents of Ashgabat by connection speed of 2 Mb/s, we will get the number of allowed connections to “Turkmentelecom” with the full bandwidth capacity, which is expected to be very low speeds, by world standards.
This will translate into 10 thousand private (per household) simultaneous Internet connections, provided the connection speed does not “drop down”.If we increase it fivefold, as is envisaged by the project, we will arrive at 50 thousand maximum allowed connections, given that according to Wikipedia, about a million people or 250 thousand households reside in Ashgabat (four people in each household on average).
The precise number of subscribers of the state-run telecommunications operator “Turkmentelecom” is unknown.Moreover, when attempting to open the provider website, the browser warns that connection to the web resource can pose a threat and recommends not visiting it.
On 11 January TDH reported that over the last three months of 2017 the number of Internet users in Turkmenistan increased by 1,2 times but no specific numbers were quoted.
The situation with Internet access in Turkmenistan is vividly demonstrated by websites of state-run media outlets and ministries with their obsolete and old-fashioned design reminding of the 90-s.
Turkmen “one-stop shop” or data centre is wishful thinking since it is impossible even to buy airline tickets online in Turkmenistan. “Turkmenistan Airlines” still do not have their own website.
In June 2017 Deputy Prime Minister Bairam Annameredov briefed on organizing online sale of “Turkmenkhovayollary” tickets, which is envisaged to be carried out in stages.Over the past nine months no measures have been undertaken.
It should be highlighted that the authorities first mentioned the launch of online ticket sale in January 2013 (!).
The main Ashgabat airport “Oguzkhan” does not have a website. The announcement on the tender to design the website was published only in January 2018.
Now back to mobile Internet.After the Russian mobile provider “MTS” curtailed its operations In September 2017 a lot of its subscribers were forced to switch to the state-run operator “Altyn Asyr”.
The state-run provider fails to handle the influx of subscribers as the engineering capacity is unable to withstand the workload.Subscribers complain about frequent connection disruption, extremely low connection speeds and the unjustified withdrawal of funds from their accounts.
Many residents hope that the quality of communication will improve when the new cellular provider “Ai Nazar”, the launch of which was reported by the official media outlets in June 2017, will start operating.
It appears that after the announcement they have forgotten about it.
At the same time, there is no unhampered Internet access in the country and the authorities block all information websites which have criticized or criticize the authorities.
To prevent the residents from learning news from alternative sources of information, access to social networks and messengers is also restricted and as a result the demand for VPN software has increased in Turkmenistan.
These facts suggest that in the forthcoming years the situation with regard to Turkmen high tech solutions is unlikely to change and the officials will have to make manual notes of the President’s endless instructions in green notebooks for a while.