RIPE NCC Internet Country Report: Central Asia
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RIPE NETWORK COORDINATION CENTRE RIPE NCC Internet Country Report: Central Asia September 2020 RIPE NCC Internet Country Report: Central Asia | 2020 2 RIPE NER CRINAIN CENRE Introduction The Internet is a global network of networks, yet every Highlights country’s relationship to it is different. This report provides t Central Asia’s geography, history and regulatory an outlook on the current state of the Internet in Central landscape all contribute to limitations on the region’s Asia. We offer an analysis of the region’s current Internet Internet access number resource holdings and its history of development, t There is limited market competition and private or examine Internet routing within the region, take a close foreign investment, although some major digital look at its access to the global domain name system, and initiatives in the region aim to improve connectivity investigate its connections to the global Internet. This t As in many parts of the world, a lack of IPv4 poses a analysis is based on what we can observe from the RIPE major challenge to future development NCC’s measurement tools as well as a few external data t Significant improvements in IPv6 deployment are sources. needed to support future growth t Access to the domain name system is generally We focus the spotlight on Central Asia as a sub-region optimised, occurring at the local level within the RIPE NCC’s service region that has its own unique t The vast majority of traffic is exchanged on the local opportunities and challenges, and present a comprehensive level, with limited peering opportunities and exchange analysis of the region’s Internet development in order to points inform discussion, provide technical insight, and facilitate t There are limited international connections into the the exchange of information and best practices regarding region Internet-related developments in this particular region. This is the fifth such country report that the RIPE NCC has produced as part of an ongoing effort to support Internet development throughout our service region by making our data and insights available to local technical communities and decision makers. RIPE NCC Internet Country Report: Central Asia | 2020 3 RIPE NER CRINAIN CENRE Figure 1: Number of Local Internet Registries over time 0 0 0 50 40 0 20 10 0 2004 2005 200 200 200 2009 2010 2011 2012 201 2014 2015 201 201 201 201 2020 KZ Kazakhstan UZ Uzbekistan KG Kyrgyzstan TJ Tajikistan TM Turkmenistan The Central Asian Market and several foreign operators that had begun to penetrate Number of Providers Opportunity for Growth the Central Asian market have left the region and there is As a general rule, we would expect the number of Local little foreign or private investment.1 Although broadband Internet Registries (LIRs) to roughly correspond with The Market Landscape and mobile development are a priority for the region’s a country’s population. However, Kazakhstan clearly In general, the landscape in Central Asia is not one based governments, the strategy is often one of centralisation, dominates the region here, with far more LIRs per capita on free market competition, but government influence and which includes limited points of connectivity to the outside than any of the other countries. Uzbekistan, despite having control. Although the region is trying to redefine itself in a world offered by a small number of providers. Although this nearly double the population of Kazakhstan, lags behind post-Soviet and post-oil era, security and sovereignty remain approach may appear on the surface to offer governments in the number of LIRs serving its population. Some of this driving forces. As a result, the state-owned incumbent more control, it can in fact contribute to higher prices, lead discrepancy can be attributed to the fact that Kazakhstan providers play a dominant role in all five countries, and the to suboptimal routing and hampers the development of a is by far the largest of the five countries in terms of cost of Internet connectivity is extremely high compared to stable, resilient Internet. geographical size. However, the disproportionately larger many other parts of the world even in absolute terms, and number of providers serving Kazakhstan, which includes especially given local salaries and cost of living. However, there are currently some major infrastructure several large providers and a number of smaller ones, likely development projects underway in the region, including indicates a more competitive market than we see in the rest Internet service providers are also far more regulated the UN’s Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway, the Digital of the region. Overall, Turkmenistan has the least developed in Central Asia – where operators may require a licence CASA initiative, and investment on the part of several market, with only two LIRs operating in the country. or permit to lay fibre or access international connectivity major Chinese companies, which aim to improve Internet 1 See, for example: https://cn.reuters.com/article/telia-company-eurasia-idINL8N1BJ10N – than in many other parts of the world. In recent years, accessibility and affordability. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-mts-uzbekistan-idUSKCN10G20G RIPE NCC Internet Country Report: Central Asia | 2020 4 RIPE NER CRINAIN CENRE Figure 2: Number of networks over time 200 150 100 50 0 2005 200 2009 2011 201 2015 201 201 2021 KZ UZ KG TJ TM increasing number of LIRs doesn’t necessarily translate to its population suggests a more robust market. RIPE NCC Members and Local Internet Registries into a growth in the number of Internet access providers. (LIRs) Other types of organisations requiring IP addresses While we see significant growth in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan RIPE NCC members include Internet service also open LIRs, including hosting providers, government and Kyrgyzstan, there has been little to no increase in providers, content hosting providers, government agencies, universities, businesses, etc. While in some parts the number of networks operating in Tajikistan and agencies, academic institutions, businesses and other of the RIPE NCC’s service region we see examples of the Turkmenistan over the past 15 years. organisations that run their own networks in the same organisation opening additional LIRs in order to RIPE NCC’s service region of Europe, the Middle East receive more IPv4 address space, this is less of an issue in and Central Asia. The RIPE NCC distributes Internet Central Asia. address space to these members, who may further assign IP addresses to their own end users. It is Number of Networks possible for members to open more than one account, A larger number of Local Internet Registries generally called a Local Internet Registry (LIR). corresponds to a larger number of independently operated networks (called Autonomous Systems, each of which is represented by an Autonomous System Number, All countries in the region except for Turkmenistan show or ASN), which is exactly what we see in the region. a growth in the number of LIRs over time. However, an Again, Kazakhstan’s higher number of networks compared RIPE NCC Internet Country Report: Central Asia | 2020 5 RIPE NER CRINAIN CENRE Figure 3: IPv4 Address Space in Central Asia IPv4 holdings over time Until 2012, RIPE NCC members could receive larger amounts of IPv4 address space based on demonstrated Number of addresses need. When the RIPE NCC reached the last /8 of IPv4 address space in 2012, the RIPE community instituted a ,500k policy allowing new LIRs to receive a small allocation of IPv4 in order to help them make the transition to IPv6, the next generation protocol that includes enough IP addresses for ,000k the foreseeable future. In November 2019, the RIPE NCC made the last of these allocations and a waiting list now exists whereby organisations who have never received IPv4 from the RIPE NCC can receive an even smaller allocation if 2,500k and when enough address space is recovered (occasionally member accounts are closed and address space is returned to the RIPE NCC). 2,000k Even before 2012, there wasn’t much of an increase in the number of IPv4 addresses held by LIRs in Central Asia – the exception again being Kazakhstan, which saw huge growth in its amount of IPv4 address space in the years leading 1,500k up to 2012 (when the change in allocation size took place). Since then, growth has tapered off, as LIRs could receive only a small, final IPv4 allocation of 1,024 addresses. 1,000k With more than 3.1 million IPv4 addresses, Kazakhstan clearly dominates the region. Still, the country has only one IPv4 address for every six people – far less than we see in other parts of the RIPE NCC’s service region. The other 500k countries in the region range between having one address for every 24 people (Kyrgyzstan) to one address for every 400 people (Turkmenistan). 0 2004 2005 200 200 200 200 2010 2011 2012 201 2014 2015 201 201 201 201 2020 KZ KG UZ TJ TM RIPE NCC Internet Country Report: Central Asia | 2020 6 RIPE NER CRINAIN CENRE Figure 4: Fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people over time It’s important to note that a low address-to-population ratio doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be impossible for 15 a country to provide connectivity to all its citizens, even in a region like Central Asia where fixed broadband isn’t as widely 12 available as many other areas (and is almost non-existent in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan). The region’s landlocked 9 countries and mountainous geography obviously pose major challenges to its ability to provide ubiquitous broadband access, particularly in rural areas. In addition, 6 the market was late to develop in the region compared to much of Europe and North America, which resulted in rapid 3 growth in the mobile rather than broadband market.