Telecommunications in Tajikistan

Telecommunications In Tajikistan

The conventional telephone system is in poor condition because it has received little investment in the post-Soviet era. As of 2007 there were 340,000 telephone lines in use, a ratio of one per 21 people. Many towns are not connected to the national network. In the early 2000s, the state telecommunications agency, Tajiktelekom, received international aid to upgrade the telephone system. In 2007 there were 3.5 million mobile telephones in use, compared with only 47,300 in 2003. This makes Tajikistan the 90th most cellular-capable country in the world. Among several cellular networks, the Babilon Mobile Company, a US-Tajik joint venture, claimed to have 40 percent of the market in 2006. The June 2006 launch of the KazSat communications satellite from Kazakhstan was expected to reduce the dependence of all the Central Asian countries on European and U.S. telecommunications satellites. Launch of a second KazSat is planned for 2009. The country's international calling code is 992.