Last updated: 3 Mar 2025 Update History
Report Status: Current
Report Pages: 107
Analyst: Henry Lancaster
Uzbekistan gained independence from the former Soviet Union in September 1991, though despite the endeavours of governments since then to adopt the principles of operating as a market economy, many elements of the old centrally planned economic model remain. This initially discouraged interest from foreign companies and investors to build out the necessary underlying infrastructure, which for many years post-independence was rudimentary. In turn, the lack of investment constrained the rate of growth in the sector. A shift occurred in 2006 when Telia Company, VimpelCom (since rebranded as VEON), and MTS entered the market. Their experience was fractured, with Telia Company selling out and MTS having its operating license revoked.
Nevertheless, during the last few years there has been an upswing in sector’s prospects. In particular, fibre networks have been rolled out beyond the main urban centres, satellite broadband services from Starlink have been licenced and are anticipated in 2025 or 2026, and the mobile market has seen strong growth. The mobile market enjoys effective competition, though the MVNO segment remains underdeveloped.
The fixed-line market is dominated by the incumbent state-owned provider Uztelecom, which has a 98% share of connections. Teledensity increased sharply in 2019 and again in 2023, and sits at around 17%. Further growth is anticipated in coming years as fixed infrastructure continues to be build out by Uztelecom, though the preference for the mobile platform for voice and data services will temper the rate of growth. In addition, as Uztelecom focusses on expanding its fibre footprint across the country, customers are adopting VoIP services as part of their fibre packages, and so the PSTN will gradually fade. The expanding fibre infrastructure is helping boost the fixed broadband segment (albeit coming off a very low base).
Uztelecom, UCell, Beeline Uzbekistan, Uzmobile, Mobiuz, East Telecom, Uzbekspace
Related Reports
Monitor critical insights with our AI-powered Market Intelligence Platform gathering and analyzing intelligence in real time. With AI trained to spot emerging trends and detect new strategic opportunities, our clients use TMT Intelligence to accelerate their growth.
If you want to know more about it, please see:
BuddeComm's strategic business reports contain a combination of both primary and secondary research statistics, analyses written by our senior analysts supported by a network of experts, industry contacts and researchers from around the world as well as our own scenario forecasts.
For more details, please see:
More than 4,000 customers from 140 countries utilise BuddeComm Research
Are you interested in BuddeComm's Custom Research Service?
Have the latest telecommunications industry news delivered to your inbox by subscribing to BuddeComm's weekly newsletter.