Uzbekistan

TASHKENT, April 6 (Prime-Tass) -- Revenue from telecommunications services in Uzbekistan rose 36.4% on the year to 110.2 billion som in January-March, Uzbekistan's State IT and Telecommunications Agency said Thursday.

The total subscriber base of mobile operators rose to 1.3 million users as of April 1 from 1.15 million users as of January 1, the agency said, adding that the number of Internet users rose to 1.08 million people from 855,000 people.

Currently, Uzbekistan has seven mobile service providers. The country?s largest mobile operator Uzdunrobita, controlled by Russia?s largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), provides services in the GSM and AMPS/DAMPS standards.

Uzbekistan?s other mobile operators are Uzbektelecom with a CDMA-450 network, U.S.-Uzbek joint venture Rubicon with DAMPS and CDMA-800 standard services, and four GSM operators, Coscom, Daewoo Central Paging, Uzmacom and Buztel, with the latter two being owned by Russia?s second largest mobile operator VimpelCom.

In 2005, revenue from telecommunications services in Uzbekistan rose 32% on the year to 374.1 billion som.

(1,213 som - U.S. $1)

End"

Posted to the site on 6th April 2006