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Uzbekistan
Telecommunications
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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