Turkmenistan - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Executive summary

Mobile broadband gains momentum in Turkmenistan in struggling fixed line market

Slow growth in telecom services in Turkmenistan, a predominantly rural country and former Soviet republic, can be attributed to a large extent to the slow development of the private sector and state control over most economic activities.

Turkmen Telecom has been the primary provider of telecommunication services, and through a subsidiary, TM-Cell, it has been operating a GSM mobile network in competition with a private mobile operator, MTS Turkmenistan. Not surprisingly it has been the mobile services that have been dominating the expansion activity.

Turkmenistan’s mobile market has experienced extraordinarily strong growth over 2007 to 2012 period. Over the 2013 to 2017 the mobile market increased at a much slower pace, as the market has moved closer to a saturation phase there has been an inevitable slowing in the growth rate. Slow growth is predicted over the next five years to 2022. The market will be constrained from higher growth due to a further maturing market.

Turkmenistan has experienced a number of problems relating to communications technology. Despite efforts to upgrade the country’s telecom infrastructure, the telephone network remained poorly developed and many villages have been left without telephone services. Fixed line penetration over the past four years has been increasing slowly from a relatively small base.

Fixed broadband penetration in Turkmenistan remains limited in scale and nature and extremely low mainly due to a limited number of fixed lines as well as the dominance of the mobile platform. Market penetration has not grown significantly over the last five years. Over the next five years to 2022 growth is expected to continue but overall market penetration will remain extremely low.

Turkmenistan has seen a strong increase in mobile broadband penetration over the past four years, however the mobile broadband market is still at an early stage of development and penetration remains relatively low compared to other Asian nations. Very strong growth is predicted over the next five years to 2022. The mobile broadband market will be driven by a rising level of mobile subscribers, increasingly faster speeds offered by the mobile operators as they roll out their 4G networks and falling prices due to strong competition.

Key developments:

• Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Communication of Turkmenistan was reportedly preparing for the launch of a new mobile service provider.
• Satellite communications and internet services were launched in the settlement of Kirpili in the Akhal region and in a settlement in the Balkan region in Turkmenistan.
• The penetration of Internet users in Turkmenistan has been growing moderately over the past four years.
• MTS Turkmenistan announced plans to expand the coverage of its 3G network with the deployment of additional base stations.

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