The internet is on the move in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan. With the print media under control or pressure of the government, the internet becomes more and more important especially for the young generation of Kyrgyz. Two new internet cafes were recently opened in Bishkek, making it six altogether. This year there are already up to 7,000 internet subscribers in this country of 4.5 million people. But this is only the official number of subscriber while the real figure of internet users is likely to be a lot higher. Alexander Dudin, director of Elcat, the most popular Internet Service Provider, thinks the number of internet users is already above the 20,000 mark.

New internet projects are designed almost every day and according to Kubatbek Talypov, director of the IT department of the Kyrgyz Ministry of Transport and Communication, the number of computers in the country grows by approximately 6,000 every year. There were 8,000 computers in the state departments last year and the number increased by 3,000 this year. Also, about 2,000 computers were brought into the country as spare parts. The leading Internet Service Providers (ISPs) Elcat and AsiaInfo have already registered more than 1300 domain names together, almost half of them this year. The top sites in Kyrgyzstan are rated on a special webpage (www.top.kg) and the most frequented ones are those offering free email accounts, connecting the user with the rest of the world.

Earlier this year, the Informatization Commission under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic introduced a working group consisting of members of the National Committee on State Language Development under the President, the State Inspection on Standardization and Metrology under the government and a private computer expert, which is working on a common standard of Kyrgyz language support in the computer systems. But according to Turgunbek Kydyraliev, head of the working group in Bishkek, the final product will not be done before the year 2001.

Right now there are seven working internet providers in Kyrgyzstan with Elcat (www.elcat.kg) and AsiaInfo (www.asiainfo.kg) being the biggest ones (the others are Totel (www.totel.kg), Exnet (www.exnet.kg), Aknet (www.aknet.kg), Transfer (www.transger.kg) and Soros). Four other ISPs (Lux, Business Telecommunication System, Kyrgyztelekom and Areopag) are registered but not working for different reasons. According to the National Agency of Communications three new ISPs are waiting for their registration documents before they can start their work. Elcat has more than 1,100 subscribers in Bishkek, more than 100 in Osh, around 40 in Kara-Kol and 30 in Jalal-Abad. AsiaInfo is a close second with 1000 subscribers in Bishkek, 100 in Osh and 20 in Kara-Kol. These numbers are from the beginning of the year 2000 and go up almost every day. The internet using community is still almost entirely concentrated in the capital Bishkek which is amongst other factors due to the better phone lines in the biggest city of the Kyrgyz Republic. Recently, the Kyrgyz government announced that they are planning to introduce 500,000 new digital phone numbers to make access to the internet easier for the citizens who are interested in it.

Last week the Internet Business Tour, organized by the Happening Group (www.happening.com) and sponsored by Arthur Andersen (www.arthurandersen.com), Oracle (www.oracle.com) and eSezam (www.esezam.com), stopped in Bishkek after visiting Yerevan, Tbilisi, Baku and Tashkent the week before. The one-day conference brought together the so-called "i-people" in order to share with each other what is new in the sphere of the internet. The Happening Group is planning to turn the Internet Business Tour into a quarterly workshop to support the development of the internet in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

The most interesting piece of news during the conference in Bishkek was that the Kyrgyz government is already working on a new internet law. The Law On Information Resources Exchange is currently drafted and is expected to be ready in a few months from now. Further plans include a telecommunication project in the frameworks of the Great Silk Road which is ready but waiting for financial assistance. The project’s goal is to develop an information marketing network in CIS, Turkey, Germany and the Scandinavian countries through satellite connections and is supposed to be launched in 2002-2003.

And, finally, more good news for internet users in Kyrgyzstan. The plans of the government to limit free local calls to 400 minutes per month were revised and will only be imposed on juridical entities. Private phone and internet users will still be able to connect to the internet without paying for the phone line. They just have to pay their subscription fee to the ISP (from USD 5 per month) and their fee for internet use (from USD 0.2 per hour at night to USD 0.8 during the day). Nevertheless, these prices are too high for the average Kyrgyz and for the time being restrict access to the internet to the rich or to people who can use a shared computer at work or universities. But with the growing demand for internet access and the growing number of providers trying to get their share of the internet market, the fees for the user will hopefully be reduced in the months to come.

Chris Schuepp – Elvira Sarieva

(Internews Network Kyrgyz Republic)