Telecommunications in Turkmenistan - Internet Service

Internet Service

Turkmenistan gained access to the Internet in 1997 through a contract with MCI Communications (later became MCI WorldCom). A small number of independent Internet Service Providers were forced out of business in 2001 when TurkmenTelecom was granted a monopoly over data services. Dependence on expensive satellite channels limited the availability of Internet to only two thousand subscribers. To upgrade the Internet backbone, Ministry of Communication signed a contract with TATA Communications for routing traffic through Transit-Asia-Europe fiber optic channel. As a result of this development, TurkmenTelecom started offering an access to the higher speed Internet with ADSL to the consumers in Ashgabat.

In 2008, MTS started offering Internet service to mobile subscribers via GPRS. Altyn Asyr was first to launch 3G and 2 mpbs mobile internet service in March 2010. Move surprised mobile customers as the provider was known for inferior but cheaper service.

Country code (Top level domain): TM