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DE RUEHAH #0639/01 1401121
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 191121Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0822
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
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RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL PRIORITY 2025
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000639 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EEB, DRL 
PLEASE PASS TO USTDA DAN STEIN 
COMMERCE FOR HUEPER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON EINV ECPS TX
SUBJECT:  TURKMENISTAN:  RUSSIAN TELECOM COMPANY INTRODUCES LIMITED 
BLACKBERRY-TYPE SERVICE 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  (U) SUMMARY:  Turkmenistan's government has been moving 
gradually to act on President Berdimuhamedov's call for universal 
Internet access.  Turkmen Telecom, so far Turkmenistan's sole 
Internet provider, has signed a contract with the Russian company 
"TechnoServ" to provide a total of 20,000 new dial-up accounts and 
1100 new high-speed accounts by July.  But the government's efforts 
to move at a pace that would allow it to absorb the new additions as 
well as maintain its control over access and content is being 
challenged by Russian mobile phone operator Mobile Telesystems 
(MTS), which started offering a Blackberry-like service in March. 
Although the new service is limited for now to "legal authorities," 
it is now likely just a matter of time before access to the new 
technology spreads to average citizens, which we continue to believe 
is Berdimuhamedov's intention.  In our view, international press 
reports claiming Turkmenistan still wants to deny the introduction 
of Internet tend to draw on off-shore Turkmen opposition web sites, 
especially the unreliable www.chrono-tm.org, that generally see a 
glass half empty, at best.  END SUMMARY. 
 
GOVERNMENT MOVING SLOWLY TO BROADEN INTERNET 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Providing Internet accessibility to every school, 
kindergarten and home was one of the main items of Berdimuhamedov's 
election platform.  Currently, state-owned "Turkmen Telecom," under 
the Ministry of Communications, is the only Internet provider in 
Turkmenistan.  A limited number of government agencies, private 
businesses and independent citizens have dial-up Internet 
connections via Turkmen Telecom.  These accounts were created in the 
late 1990s and early 2000s -- before the 2002 attack on the former 
president's motorcade raised security concerns that Internet could 
be a threat.  Since then, Turkmen Telecom has not created any new 
accounts.  Alisa Yakovlevna, a Turkmen Telecom lawyer, confirmed 
this, stating firmly that "if before there were 'underground' ways 
of getting private accounts installed, they no longer exist." 
Responding to questions about when Internet access will be widely 
available in Turkmenistan, Yakovlevna referred to a contract that 
the Ministry of Communication signed with a Russian company, 
"TechnoServ," in late 2007.  According to the contract, TechnoServ 
will provide $1.5 million worth of equipment for "developing, 
modernizing, and expanding" Internet service.  This will include 
installing 14 new servers in Ashgabat and 10 in the provinces, 
providing a total of 20,000 new dial-up accounts and 1100 new 
high-speed accounts.  According to Yakovlevna, the equipment should 
arrive in July. 
 
¶4.  (U) On April 8, the official government news program "Watan" 
reported that Turkmenistan's Ministry of Communications and the 
Chinese company, Huawei, had signed a contract to expand the 
capacity of the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) radio 
communications network.  (NOTE:  CDMA is a channel access method 
used in Turkmenistan for mobile communication.  END NOTE.) 
According to Watan News, the Chinese company has started to install 
the equipment.  The CDMA will offer high-speed wireless Internet for 
mobile users.  Huawei plans to increase the number of subscribers by 
10,000, to 43,000. 
 
INTERNET CAFES PROVIDE TRANSITION REMEDY 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Currently, Ashgabat has four official Internet cafes, all 
run and managed by Turkmen Telecom.  Each Internet cafe has five 
flat-screen computers and is open 9:00 am-6:00 pm daily, except for 
Sunday.  At these cafes, one hour of Internet use now costs 30,000 
manats, or about $2.00.  The fee, set at 90,000 manats in 2007, 
decreased in January 2008 to 60,000 manats.  It was decreased to its 
current level following Berdimuhamedov's public criticism during an 
April 14 cabinet meeting that the Ministry was providing 
"unjustifiably overpriced Internet services" to the population.  A 
U.S. exchange alumnus who habitually uses the cafes said that the 
Ashgabat cafes have the best connections in the country.  Others 
 
ASHGABAT 00000639  002 OF 002 
 
 
have told us that the cafes remain underutilized. 
 
MTS ROLLS OUT BLACKBERRY-TYPE SERVICE 
 
¶6.  (SBU) However, a new player is making its way onto the scene 
that could challenge the current carefully controlled expansion of 
Internet availability:  MTS (Mobile TeleSystems), the largest mobile 
phone operator in Russia (and in Turkmenistan) started providing 
Internet through GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), a 
Blackberry-type technology, in late March 2008.  According to a 
local sales representative, the GPRS Internet service costs $1 per 
megabyte of traffic transferred during daytime hours and 50 cents at 
night and on Sunday.  (Some FSNs have been quoted slightly different 
rates.)  MTS's Internet service is available in the "Ahal zone" -- 
encompassing Ashgabat and Ahal Province's medium-sized towns -- and 
in Turkmenbashy City, located on the Caspian Sea.  Meanwhile, MTS is 
working on installing the necessary equipment so that it can expand 
its service to all major provincial cities. 
 
SERVICE LIMITED -- FOR NOW -- TO "LEGAL ENTITIES" 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Currently, MTS is providing its Internet service only to 
legal entities and foreign businessmen.  However it hopes to receive 
approval from the Government of Turkmenistan to extend its services 
to private citizens as well.  According to an MTS representative, 
"The main concern the government has regarding expanding our service 
to private citizens is its inability to monitor the websites people 
visit."  A foreign businessman who uses the MTS service told post 
that when he sought to sign up for MTS' service, he faced massive 
amounts of red tape and nearly daily visits from officials concerned 
about how he was using his subscription. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) COMMENT:  The lack of direct competition up to now has 
allowed the government to move at a deliberate speed in implementing 
President Berdimuhamedov's call for broader Internet access.  But 
with the strides being made in cellular technologies and MTS 
prepared to capitalize on this opening in Turkmenistan's market, the 
genie may have been let out of the bottle -- and with little chance 
of keeping the consequences contained.  It is unlikely that the 
authorities will be able to maintain the current line between "legal 
entities" and private citizens for long.  We continue to believe 
Berdimuhamedov's intention is for all citizens to have access to the 
Internet.  In our view, international press reports claiming 
Turkmenistan still wants to deny the introduction of Internet tend 
to draw on off-shore Turkmen opposition web sites, especially the 
unreliable www.chrono-tm.org, that generally see a glass half empty, 
at best.    END COMMENT. 
 
HOAGLAND