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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Uzbekistan
Index
The Soviet-era telecommunications system was centralized, with Moscow
acting as the hub for routing international communications. Investment in
this system was generally low throughout the Soviet era, leaving the
republics with low-quality equipment and service that have deteriorated
further in the first years of independence. In the early 1990s, the
installation of new lines dropped significantly in Uzbekistan. Recognizing
the vital role of telecommunications in any modernization process, the
government has sought international investment in updating its systems.
Structure
Beginning in 1992, the Ministry of Communications has had responsibility
for all modes of telecommunications, plus postal service and all print and
broadcast media. Its purview also extends to construction and some
manufacturing operations. Its Uzbekistan Telecommunications Administration
(Uzbektelecom) includes fourteen enterprises, one in each of the country's
thirteen regions plus one in Tashkent. Some twenty-six other
communications enterprises are controlled directly. A planning enterprise
is in charge of reconfiguring the transmission facilities designed by
Soviet authorities for broadcast across the entire Soviet Union. Many of
the Soviet system's technical operations, such as frequency control and
international connections, were centered in Moscow, meaning that
Uzbekistani broadcast personnel have had to absorb all those functions
without the expertise to manage all the technical aspects of an
independent national broadcast system. Long-term plans call for decreased
involvement by the ministry and decentralization, with the operation
gradually turned over to private enterprises.
Service System
In 1994 Uzbekistan's telephone system served about 1.46 million
customers, or about 7 percent of the population. Of that number, 1.12
million were in urban areas and 340,000 were rural customers; 1.08 million
were residential customers and 380,000 were businesses. The official
waiting list for telephone installation included 360,000 individuals, not
counting an estimated 1 million who had not registered but required
service. Average waiting time was three to five years. Of the 1.86 million
lines existing in 1994, nearly all were manufactured in the former Soviet
Union or in Eastern Europe. An estimated 20 percent of urban lines used
switching equipment that no longer was in production, and about half of
those lines were at least twenty years old. Because of these conditions,
lack of spare parts is an increasing source of customer dissatisfaction
and faulty service. Installation efficiency dropped significantly in the
early 1990s. For example, in Tashkent in 1987 some 42,500 new telephones
were installed; in 1992 only 9,000 new telephones were installed, although
requests increased to 50,000 that year. In the mid-1990s, the Ministry of
Communications lacked the technology to install digital telephone
technology. Tashkent is the hub for international telephone connections.
In 1993 nearly 90 percent of international calls passed through that city
(only about 0.03 percent of total calls made in Uzbekistan were
international).
In 1993 the Ministry of Communications purchased an Intelsat A satellite
earth station and made agreements with several Western firms to establish
thirty stations of international television broadcast programming from
Japan, Southeast Asia, the United States (in cooperation with American
Telephone and Telegraph), Western Europe (through Germany), and Pakistan.
The satellite broadcasts were available, however, only in targeted
locations such as large hotels and government offices. In 1995 a Turkish
satellite began relaying communications to Azerbaijan and all the Central
Asian states. In 1994 negotiations among ten regional countries discussed
installation of an 11,000-kilometer fiber-optic link between Europe and
Asia, which would terminate in Tashkent and provide access to all the
Central Asian states.
Data as of March 1996
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