Uzbekistan Telecoms Market Report

Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Last updated: 3 Mar 2025 Update History

Report Status: Current

Report Pages: 107

Analyst: Henry Lancaster

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Summary
Table Of Contents

Uzbekistan’s revised telecoms law aims to address new market developments

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).

Key Developments:

Beeline to upgrade more than 220 base stations across the country by the end of 2025.
Perfectum aims to partner with Vodafone for its 5G SA launch, supported by Nokia as sole vendor.
SpaceX’s Starlink receives a licence to operate in Uzbekistan though service launch is delayed to 2026.
New Telecommunications Law comes into effect.
Government abolishes 10% tax on mobile telecom services.
Report update includes the regulator's market data to December 2024, telcos' financial and operating data updates to September 2024, updated Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Uztelecom, UCell, Beeline Uzbekistan, Uzmobile, Mobiuz, East Telecom, Uzbekspace

Key statistics
Regional Asia market comparison

Market characteristics
Market Leaders
Market Challengers
Market Emergents
TMI vs GDP
Mobile and mobile broadband penetration
Fixed versus mobile broadband penetration

Country overview
Telecommunications market
Regulatory environment

Regulatory authority

Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications (MITC)

Spectrum
Broadband strategy

Mobile market

Mobile statistics
Mobile broadband
Mobile infrastructure

Major mobile operators

UCell
Beeline Uzbekistan
Uzmobile
Mobiuz
Perfectum Mobile
MVNOs

Mobile content and applications

Mobile banking and payments

Fixed-line broadband market

ISPs/fixed broadband operators
Other fixed broadband services

Wi-Fi
WiMAX
Satellite

Digital economy

e-Government
E-Commerce

Fixed network market

Major network operators

Uztelecom
Beeline Uzbekistan
East Telecom

Telecommunications infrastructure

National infrastructure

Fibre networks

International infrastructure

Satellites
Cables

Appendix – Historic data
Glossary of abbreviations
Related reports

List of Tables

Table 1 – Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities - Uzbekistan – 2025 (e)
Table 2 – Change in the number of businesses involved in the telecoms sector – 2018 – 2024
Table 3 – Development of telecoms sector revenue (UZS billion) – 2018 – 2024
Table 4 – Change in the proportion of telecom sector revenue by service – 2018 – 2024
Table 5 – Change in the number of licensed ISPs– 2020 – 2024
Table 6 – Growth in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Table 7 – Change in the number of mobile broadband subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Table 8 – Change in Beeline Uzbekistan’s LTE subscribers and penetration – 2020 – 2024
Table 9 – Change in the number of Beeline Uzbekistan’s mobile subscribers – 2012 – 2024
Table 10 – Development of Beeline Uzbekistan’s financial data (UZS billion) – 2013 – 2024
Table 11 – Development of Beeline Uzbekistan’s mobile service and data revenue (UZS billion) – 2013 – 2024
Table 12 – Development of Beeline Uzbekistan’s ARPU – 2013 – 2024
Table 13 – Growth in the number of fixed broadband subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Table 14 – Change in Beeline Uzbekistan's fixed-line revenue ($) – 2011 – 2023
Table 15 – Change in Beeline Uzbekistan's fixed-line revenue (UZS) – 2014 – 2023
Table 16 – Change in the number of fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2012 – 2027
Table 17 – Lit/Equipped international bandwidth capacity (Mb/s) – 2014 – 2024
Table 18 – Historic - DSL broadband subscribers – 2003 – 2011
Table 19 – Historic - Fixed-line subscribers and penetration – 1997 – 2011
Table 20 – Historic - Change in the number of fixed broadband subscribers by technology – 2012 – 2019
Table 21 – Historic - Unitel’s fixed broadband ARPU – 2011 – 2015
Table 22 – Historic - Mobile subscribers, annual change and penetration – 1997 – 2011
Table 23 – Historic - MTS (Uzdunrobita) mobile subscribers – 1998 – 2012
Table 24 – Historic - UMS mobile subscribers – 2014 – 2016
Table 25 – Historic - UCell (Coscom) mobile subscribers – 2006 – 2015
Table 26 – Historic - VoIP subscribers – 2012 – 2019

List of Charts

Chart 1 – Asia Telecoms Maturity Index – Market Leaders
Chart 2 – Asia Telecoms Maturity Index – Market Challengers
Chart 3 – Asia Telecoms Maturity Index – Market Emergents
Chart 4 – Asia – Telecoms Maturity Index vs GDP per capita
Chart 5 – Asia – Mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 6 – Central Asia – Mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 7 – Central Asia – Fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 8 – Development of telecoms sector revenue – 2018 – 2024
Chart 9 – Change in the proportion of telecom sector revenue by service – 2018 – 2024
Chart 10 – Growth in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Chart 11 – Change in the number of mobile broadband subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Chart 12 – Change in Beeline Uzbekistan’s LTE subscribers and penetration – 2020 – 2024
Chart 13 – Change in the number of Beeline Uzbekistan’s mobile subscribers – 2012 – 2024
Chart 14 – Development of Beeline Uzbekistan’s financial data – 2013 – 2024
Chart 15 – Development of Beeline Uzbekistan’s mobile and data revenue – 2013 – 2024
Chart 16 – Development of Beeline Uzbekistan’s ARPU – 2013 – 2024
Chart 17 – Growth in the number of fixed broadband subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Chart 18 – Change in Beeline Uzbekistan's fixed-line revenue ($) – 2011 – 2023
Chart 19 – Change in Beeline Uzbekistan's fixed-line revenue (UZS) – 2014 – 2023
Chart 20 – Fixed lines in service and penetration – 2012 – 2027

List of Exhibits

Exhibit 1 – Map of Telecom Maturity Index global ranking among countries in Asia
Exhibit 2 – Generalised Market Characteristics by Market Segment
Exhibit 3 – Asia – Market Leaders and market developments
Exhibit 4 – Asia – Market Challengers and market developments
Exhibit 5 – Asia – Market Emergents and market developments
Exhibit 6 – Map of Uzbekistan
Exhibit 7 – Mobile operators and systems

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Uzbekistan Telecoms Market Report

Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Purchase this Report

Uzbekistan’s revised telecoms law aims to address new market developments

Key Developments:

Companies mentioned in this report:

Key statistics

Regional Asia market comparison

Country overview

Telecommunications market

Regulatory environment

Mobile market

Fixed-line broadband market

Digital economy

Fixed network market

Telecommunications infrastructure

Appendix – Historic data

Glossary of abbreviations

Related reports

Purchase this Report

Share this Report

TMT Intelligence

A platform to scale your intelligence tasks

Research Methodology

Hot Topics

News & Views