Research and Markets: Turkmenistan - Telecoms, Mobile and Internet - 2012

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/4d0c22/turkmenistan_tel) has announced the addition of the "Turkmenistan - Telecoms, Mobile and Internet" report to their offering.

Turkmenistani market in turmoil following suspension of MTS licence

Turkmenistan's telecommunications services are considered to be the least developed of all the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Poor growth in telecom services can be attributed to a large extent to the slow development of the private sector and state control over most economic activities. Efforts to move towards a more market-oriented economy have been limited. In the telecom sector there has been some progress on this front, but this in turn has been overwhelmed by significant setbacks.

Overall, the telecom market in this poor and predominantly rural country is relatively small but has been trying boldly to expand in recent years. The state-owned Turkmen Telecom has been the primary provider of public telephone, email and internet services, and through a subsidiary has been operating a GSM mobile network in competition with a private mobile operator, BCT (BCT became MTS Turkmenistan in 2005 after being acquired by the Russian-based MTS). Not surprisingly it has been the mobile services that have been dominating the expansion activity. In 2008 the country saw annual subscription growth in excess of 140%, although growth slowed significantly to about 33% in 2009. As a consequence, in a two-year period Turkmenistan, one of the smallest markets in the region, saw its mobile penetration jump from 8% to 30%.Combined fixed-line and mobile teledensity had reached slightly more than 70% by late 2010.

Market highlights:

• The Turkmenistan telecom market has been dominated by the suspension and non-renewal of MTS Turkmenistan's mobile licence; this happened in December 2010/January 2011, but the repercussions were felt right through 2011 and into 2012.
• A major outcome was that state-owned mobile operator TM Cell, as the sole remaining mobile operator in the market place, was struggling to cope with the demand for service, with in excess of 2.5 million MTS subscribers left without a service provider.
• By end-2011 it was not clear how many working subscribers were being served by TM Cell.
• Prior to the suspension/non-renewal of MTS' concession at the end of 2010 mobile subscriber numbers in Turkmenistan were finally on the increase but were still relatively low in number, having just passed the 3.2 million mark, representing a penetration of 63%.
• By late 2011 there had been no progress on the resolution of the dispute and the parent MTS was operating as if its Turkmen subsidiary did not exist.
• By December 2010 MTS, prior to its suspension, claimed around 80% of the mobile subscriber market.
• For a number of years previous, growth had been outstanding; mobile subscriber numbers increased by almost 300% in the two year period 2008/09;
• Fixed-line penetration in Turkmenistan had been struggling to break through the 10% penetration barrier; it finally did so in 2010;
• Internet growth in the country had been hindered by severe government controls until 2007 when there was an apparent easing of restrictions; this has not, however, seen the expected lift in - Turkmenistan's internet usage; again, it was hard to confirm the precise situation with the limited official figures available;
• There were early signs of broadband internet access being made available in the country; but an estimated broadband penetration of less than 0.1% in 2011 did not look promising.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive summary

2. Key statistics

3. Telecommunications market

4. Regulatory environment

5. Telecommunications infrastructure

6. Internet market

7. Mobile communications

Major mobile operators

• MTS-Turkmenistan (formerly Barash Communications Technologies (BCT))
• TM Cell (Altyn Asyr)

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/4d0c22/turkmenistan_tel