Kyrgyzstan Civil Initiative on Internet Policy Tattu Mambetalieva and Zlata Shramko

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Global Information Society Watch 2008 is the second in a series of yearly reports critically covering the state of the information society from Global Information the perspectives of civil society organisations across the world.

Global Information Society Watch or GISWatch has three interrelated Society Watch 2008 goals:

• Surveying the state of information and communication technology (ICT) Focus on access to infrastructure policy at the local and global levels

• Encouraging critical debate

• Strengthening networking and advocacy for a just, inclusive information society.

Each year the report focuses on a particular theme. GISWatch 2008 focuses on access to infrastructure and includes several thematic reports dealing with key access issues, an analysis of where global institutions stand on the access debate, a report looking at the state of indicators and access, six regional reports and 38 country reports.

GISWatch 2008 is a joint initiative of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), the Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Global Informat i on Soc ety Watch 2008 Developing Countries (Hivos) and the Third World Institute (ITeM). Global Informat i on Soc ety Watch 2008

Global Information Society Watch 2008 Report www.GISWatch.org 9659 04 295 ISBN 92-95049-65-9 789

9 As s o c i a t i o n f o r Pr o g r e s s i v e Co m m u n i c a t i o n s (APC), Hi v o s a n d t h e Th i r d Wo r l d In s t i t u t e (ITeM) Global Information Society Watch 2008 Global Information Society Watch 2008

Steering committee Karen Banks (APC) Roberto Bissio (ITeM) Anriette Esterhuysen (APC) Paul Maassen (Hivos) Loe Schout (Hivos) Magela Sigillito (ITeM)

Coordination committee Pablo Accuosto (ITeM) Inés Campanella (ITeM) Monique Doppert (Hivos) Karen Higgs (APC) Natasha Primo (APC)

Editor Alan Finlay

Assistant editor Lori Nordstrom

Publication production Karen Higgs

Graphic design m o n o c r o m o Myriam Bustos, Leticia da Fonte, Pablo Uribe [email protected] Phone: +598 (2) 400 1685

Cover illustration Matias Bervejillo

Proofreading Lori Nordstrom Lisa Cyr

Website www.GISWatch.org Andrea Antelo Ximena Pucciarelli Monocromo

Printed by CinnamonTeal Print and Publishing Printed in India

Global Information Society Watch 2008 Published by APC, Hivos and ITeM 2008

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0 Some rights reserved ISBN: 92-95049-65-9 APC-200812-CIPP-R-EN-P-0058 KYRGYzSTAN Civil Initiative on Internet Policy Tattu Mambetalieva and Zlata Shramko www.gipi.kg

Country situation as a working tool for development and in unifying disparate Kyrgyzstan (or the Kyrgyz Republic) is 199,900 square kilo- stakeholders in the field. A strong, collaborative and truly metres in size with a population of a little over five million. multilateral ICT community in Kyrgyzstan, represented Located in the northeast of Central Asia, it borders China, by the private sector, civil society actors and government Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, rendering it com- institutions, is capable of successfully defining the devel- pletely landlocked. Most of the country is mountainous opment direction in the near future, and creating a new, (93%), and the average altitude is 2,750 metres above sea effective strategy, as well as developing the corresponding level. The highest altitude is 7,439 metres (Peak Pobedy), practical action plans. the lowest 394 metres. The country’s telecommunications legislation was After having gained independence in 1991, Kyrgyzstan adopted in 1998. However, the legislation is now outdated. implemented a number of large-scale projects focused on Amongst other things, it does not allow for independent establishing a digital communications network and provid- regulation, curtails real competitiveness in the market, and ing access to the global communications network for Kyrgyz has not kept pace with changes in technology. As a result, users. Despite these efforts, around 30% of rural settlements preparatory work is being done in order to draft a new tel- still lack telephone services. The number of mobile network ecommunications law. This process is unique: for the first subscribers is constantly growing, although this has not time the business sector is asserting its rights through become a very widespread service. In order to overcome legislative reforms. However, there is still a need to attract this problem, a universal access programme was launched, international consultants in order to help develop appropri- which included e-centres and a rural access project, both ate telecommunications policies. aimed at reducing the digital divide between rural and urban Access, affordability and political will areas. Internet penetration in Kyrgyzstan is improving each The importance of ICTs for living and development can be year, a process facilitated by surmounting many regulatory seen in the efforts by many countries to assure equal access barriers and the establishment of public access centres and for users to telecommunication infrastructure, ICT services internet cafés. The number of popular and affordable internet and products. Universal access approaches vary from country telephony services is constantly growing as well. to country depending on state policy and economic status, as The market for computer and telecommunications equip- well as on the infrastructure resources of a territory. ment is well developed, but the software market is much less Determining a set of universal services appropriate to advanced. The large volume of counterfeit software and gaps the present day capacity of the country is an issue of the in governing software development processes present grave day in Kyrgyzstan. In this regard, it is important to keep the problems for this sector. strategic priorities of economic development and the devel- The mass media is reasonably developed in Kyrgyzstan. opment of a social state in balance. Hundreds of distant towns and villages in the country have gained access to a television signal as a result of a satellite Telephony television project. However, difficulties in securing a frequen- The Kyrgyz population has around 428,000 primary tel- cy range for broadcasting, as well as financial constraints ephone lines: 349,000 home phones and 79,000 business and pressures, affect the variety of public information, its phones. The number of pay phones has grown to 1,545, independence, and national audience coverage. having increased 3.5 times compared to 2002, when the to- Citizen access to government information is also prob- tal number of pay phones across the country was 432. lematic: the information is still very scarce, and its provision The local telephone network in Kyrgyzstan is mainly often involves complex bureaucratic difficulties. provided by the national operator JSC Kyrgyztelecom. Kyr- Kyrgyzstan has a unique experience in that it formulated gyztelecom has implemented a number of projects over its development policy on information and communica- the years focused on establishing modern digital telecom- tions technologies (ICTs) collaboratively. The country has munications infrastructure. In spite of this, a year ago the adopted a national strategy called Information and Com- fixed-line teledensity in Kyrgyzstan was only around 84 lines munication Technologies for Development in the Kyrgyz per 1,000 people. The relatively low ratio is explained by Republic. Despite some criticism, this document has played the fact that almost two-thirds of the population resides in a crucial historic role in providing an understanding of ICTs mountainous rural areas. Currently almost 30% of the 6,000

146 / Global Information Society Watch settlements located in the rural areas of Kyrgyzstan do not only the people with the highest levels of income could af- have telephones. ford them. Gradually, as the competition strengthened, cell Providing local fixed-line phone service is an unprof- phones became more affordable to the wider population. itable venture for Kyrgyztelecom. This is due to the low Presently in Kyrgyzstan there are nine registered mo- prices set both for the capital Bishkek and for the outly- bile service providers. Six of these are operating. Every year ing regions – the prices are lower than the cost levels. there is tougher competition for the less solvent groups of Losses are significantly higher in the rural areas because the population, and the revenues of the mobile network op- of the higher cost of operations and even lower prices to erators per user are constantly declining. The average cost end-users. The price of an annual phone bill for the ur- of a one-minute phone call on a mobile phone within the ban population ranges between USD 12.60 and USD 15.50 same network ranges from six to twenty cents (depending (without taxes), and in rural areas between USD 4.70 and on the tariff, zone, and call category), which makes mobile USD 7.00. The need to subsidise local telephone service communications affordable for the general population. forces Kyrgyztelecom to utilise cross-subsidies, which The market of additional mobile services is developing leads to higher prices for long-distance phone calls than very rapidly in Kyrgyzstan. These services include multimedia alternative operators can offer. messaging service (MMS) and wireless application protocol These alternative operators – such as Saima-Telecom (WAP) access that makes it possible to download music and and Winline – have an opportunity to effectively compete videos and receive postcards and various information items with Kyrgyztelecom in terms of pricing for intercity and through short message service (SMS) subscription, as well international communications. Intercity and international as to take part in SMS games. It should be noted that at this long-distance services are currently provided by fifteen point there are relatively few WAP websites in the .kg do- operators. The market share of Kyrgyztelecom in this mar- main, and subscribers mostly use Russian information and ket segment is constantly decreasing, while other network entertainment WAP sites. operators use the Kyrgyztelecom infrastructure to various extents for providing their own services. Alternative op- Internet erators for fixed-line telephonic communications mostly The total number of internet users in Kyrgyzstan over the last provide their services in Bishkek and its vicinity, focusing on few years has increased annually by 100,000 people on aver- the richest clients. age. Today it totals over 550,000 – which means each tenth For example, Saima-Telecom’s network covers around resident of Kyrgyzstan has become an internet user. Notably, 40% of the city. The company provides its services via the number of regular users is only 150,000. Growth in the fibre-optic cable. Since 2005, it has offered asymmetric dial-up segment has practically stopped, while there has digital subscriber line (ADSL) internet connectivity. In 2006 been an increase in the number of ADSL broadband sub- the company began implementing a project that created a scriptions. The total number of subscribers to all internet new-generation network in Bishkek, unifying such services providers combined is currently estimated at 16,000. Ap- as traditional telephony, internet protocol (IP) telephony and proximately 10,000 of these are corporate users. The cost broadband internet access. of hourly dial-up internet access ranges on average between Another alternative fixed-line telephone operator, Win- USD 0.40 and USD 0.80 (without taxes) during the day and line, is the owner of a major communications network and between USD 0.10 and USD 0.30 (without taxes) at night. At is able to provide local and long-distance telephone services the same time, the average monthly income in Kyrgyzstan through wireless telephone terminals with an independ- remains very low (around USD 60), which is the major so- ent feed. The company offers services to the residents of cioeconomic factor hindering growth. Another barrier to Bishkek and the Chui region – mostly surrounding Bishkek development is a low level of home computer ownership: the city. Experts estimate that alternative operators have the ag- Expert Consulting Agency estimates that the total number of gregate of at least 5,000 telephone lines. home computers in the country amounts to about 80,000. There are over 150 centres offering public access to Mobile communications the internet in Kyrgyzstan, including internet cafés and free Kyrgyzstan has experienced rapid growth in mobile commu- public access centres. The latter, together with a number of nications over the past several years. According to official higher education institutions offering public access, are fi- International Telecommunication Union (ITU) data, in 1999 nanced by international donor organisations and positively the number of users of mobile networks was no greater than contribute to the number of internet users in the country. 2,600, but the number of mobile users had risen to 263,400 in 2004, 541,700 in 2005, and exceeded 560,000 in 2006. Hardware and software Despite this dynamic development, it should be noted There is a major disparity in the hardware and software that the adoption of mobile communications in the country markets in Kyrgyzstan: the software market is much less de- still remains relatively low. The 2006 figure still represents veloped. While Kyrgyz users have an opportunity to use most only 10% of the total population. When mobile communi- of the newest software products and programmes, some- cations services first appeared in Kyrgyzstan in the 1990s, times even before their colleagues from other countries,

Kyrgyzstan / 147 according to experts, 99% of these are pirated. The major • High cost of telecommunication services: The pur- factor explaining the current situation, apparently, is not a chasing capacity of the population greatly influences resistance on the part of users to purchase licensed prod- the situation. High tariffs for international and intercity ucts, but the mere fact that they cannot afford to buy them services (despite the ongoing restructuring of tariffs for due to limited financial resources. international, intercity and local communication serv- Another reason for the lack of development in the ices) restrict access for many Kyrgyz citizens. software market is the lack of any system of software gov- • Insufficient widespread access to wireless communica- ernance – software installation in the corporate and even in tion facilities: Apart from fixed telecommunication lines, the state sector occurs on an ad-hoc basis. At the same time, other communication facilities are seldom used and not free and open source software (FOSS) is only used by some always used effectively. companies. Targeted work on promoting and disseminating FOSS in Action steps the country has begun. For example, an initiative for devel- Several attempts have been made to broaden universal ac- oping FOSS, called Free and Open Source Software Support cess. One of these attempts was when providers initiated a in the Kyrgyz Republic,1 has developed FOSS training cours- fund to finance setting up communication centres (e-cen- es to train non-governmental organisations and educational tres) in remote areas and rural settlements. However, this institutions, amongst others. FOSS localisation is also being initiative was not successful, despite the fact that around done to encourage wide public use, including in schools. 30 centres were set up. One of the problems is that the cen- Factors affecting physical access to technology tres were not business-oriented and self-sustainable. The operators were carrying most of the costs, and there was • Geography: Kyrgyzstan is primarily a mountain- mass closure of the centres when the funding finished. ous country. This makes many parts of the country Another model was attempted with the support of hard to reach, with high costs involved in rolling out the United States Agency for International Development telecommunications. (USAID). It proposed setting up e-centres which were to provide paid communication services to people, including • High concentration of telecommunication services paid computer literacy courses. This project was more suc- in the capital: 80% of the volume of ICT services are cessful, as its e-centres became self-sustainable. However, provided in Bishkek city, where 20% of the country’s expansion of the centres has been very slow, as the provid- population resides. The remaining 20% are offered in ers do not extend their coverage networks to remote areas the regions where 80% of the population lives (half in and villages. cities or towns). It is critical for the development of universal access in • Low density of telephone lines in rural areas: Teleden- Kyrgyzstan for one of the key ICT players – either govern- sity in rural areas is 1.5% to 2%, which is roughly four ment or business – to exert political will. One of them must to five times less than the country average (8%), and assume responsibility for the development of access to ICTs twelve to sixteen times less than the capital (25%). in the country, and consequently undertake appropriate • Disproportionate development of the internet network: commitments. Since the level of poverty is considerably higher in the Current legislation does not make any provisions relat- outlying regions, the more remote a village is from the ing to universal access, except for political declarations by capital, the fewer the customers. This makes some ar- government leaders who declare the priority of universal ac- eas relatively unprofitable for operators. cess development. Concrete proposals are necessary. n • Poor quality of services: The quality of available services in the regions (e.g., the stability of cellular communication, quality of TV and radio signals, transfer, etc.) is much lower than in the capital, because of the less- developed infrastructure.

1 www.unix.kg

148 / Global Information Society Watch References: Association of Communication Operators, Association of Internet ICT Council under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic and United Clubs, Civil Initiative on Internet Policy (2004) Public Expertise Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2003) Information and Systematization of the Current Legislation of the Kyrgyz and Communication Technologies (ICT) Industry Survey in Republic in the Information and Communication Technology Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek: UNDP. Sector. ITU (International Telecommunication Union) (2006) World Civil Initiative on Internet Policy (2006) Kyrgyzstan ICT Overview. Information Society Report 2006. Geneva: ITU. Bishkek: CIIP. Available at: www.internetpolicy.kg National Statistical Committee (2005) Current State of ICT Civil Initiative on Internet Policy (2007) Kyrgyzstan Overview: Country Development and Use in the Kyrgyz Republic: 2001-2004. report for the OpenNet Initiative project. Bishkek: CIIP. Available Bishkek: NSI. at: www.internetpolicy.kg Public Information Center under the Administration of the President of Ershova, T. and Hohlov, Y (2006) Global Internet Policy Initiative the Kyrgyz Republic (Общественный Информационный Центр при Contribution to Information and Communication Technology Управлении делами Президента Кыргызской Республики) (2006) Application for Development in Kyrgyz Republic: Case Study. Обзор состояния сектора ИКТ в Кыргызстане. Expert Consulting Agency (2004) Analysis of the Information and Soros Foundation Kyrgyzstan (2003) Approaches to Communication Technology (ICT) Sector of Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek: Telecommunications Services Affordability Policy Development Expert Consulting Agency. in Kyrgyzstan: Materials and Recommendations. Bishkek: Soros Government of Kyrgyzstan (2002) Национальная стратегия Foundation Kyrgyzstan. "Информационно-коммуникационные технологии для развития United Nations (2005) Global E-Government Readiness Report 2005: Кыргызской Республики" (Presidential Decree “On the National From E-Government to E-Inclusion. New York: United Nations. Strategy for Information and Communication Technologies for Available at: unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/ Development in the Kyrgyz Republic”). Available at: www.gov.kg/ un/unpan021888.pdf index.php?name=EZCMS&menu=2906&page_id=105

Kyrgyzstan / 149 Global Information Society Watch 2008 is the second in a series of yearly reports critically covering the state of the information society from Global Information the perspectives of civil society organisations across the world.

Global Information Society Watch or GISWatch has three interrelated Society Watch 2008 goals:

• Surveying the state of information and communication technology (ICT) Focus on access to infrastructure policy at the local and global levels

• Encouraging critical debate

• Strengthening networking and advocacy for a just, inclusive information society.

Global Information Society Watch 2008 Report www.GISWatch.org 9659 04 295 ISBN 92-95049-65-9 789

9 As s o c i a t i o n f o r Pr o g r e s s i v e Co m m u n i c a t i o n s (APC), Hi v o s a n d t h e Th i r d Wo r l d In s t i t u t e (ITeM)