Телекоммуникации в Туркменистане: состояние и перспективы развития.

Overview of telecommunications in Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan has a state controlled press and monitored communication systems. Turkmenistan's telecommunications services are considered to be the least developed of all the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Overall, the telecom market in this 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, BCTI (BCTI became MTS Turkmenistan in 2005).

The launch of the first Turkmen communication satellite TurkmenSat 1 was launched in April 2015, the satellite has an anticipated service life of 15 years. The satellite was launched aboard SpaceX Falcon 9. The satellite is built by French Thales Alenia Space and is from the Spacebus 4000 family. The satellite will cover Europe and significant part of Asian countries and Africa and will have transmission for TV, radio broadcasting and the internet. The satellite's operations will be controlled by the state run Turkmenistan National Space Agency (TNSA).

BCTI was the only GSM operator in the country with a 10 year exclusive license granted in 1994. Due to lack of competition, BCTI continued to operate without investing much to cover rural areas. The expensive cost of the service has limited the number of subscribers to a very small percentage of the general population. The Mobile phone sector started to improve rapidly after the expiration of company's exclusive license in 2004. The Russian mobile phone operator MTS acquired BCTI and state owned communication company TurkmenTelekom opened a new subsidiary, Altyn Asyr. The number of mobile phone subscribers has now reached over 4,440,000 (MTS 1,440,000 and Altyn Asyr GSM 3,000,000). With a population of 5 million, this translates into 88.8% mobile penetration rate. In November 2023 Altyn Asyr was the first in Turkmenistan to present an opportunity to switch over to eSIM.

Individual access to the Internet was first authorised in 2008, and access has since increased. Turkmenistan ranks among the most repressive and closed societies in the world. The Internet is heavily regulated and available only to a small fraction of the population. Censorship is ubiquitous and extensive. Surveillance is significant, and the few citizens who benefit from access to the Internet are closely monitored by state agencies. Self censorship is common. Attempts to get around this censorship can lead to grave consequences. Internet censorship in Turkmenistan was classified as pervasive in the political area and as selective in the social, conflict/security and internet tools areas by the OpenNet Initiative in December 2010. Turkmenistan was listed as an internet enemy by Reporters Without Borders in 2011.

The IPTV developing fast as a cheap alternative to regular television. The IPTV service is used by more than 100,000 subscribers in Ashgabat.

Starting from 2007 the Ministry of Communication has organised the international exhibition "TurkmenTel" each year. Leading companies from all around the world are invited to Ashgabat to exhibit their technologies.