Turkmenistan Communications - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Telephones - fixed lines

total subscriptions: 717,000 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 12 (2020 est.)

Telephones - mobile cellular

total subscriptions: 9.377 million (2018)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 162.86 (2019)

Telecommunication systems

general assessment: the nation of Turkmenistan, which rivals only North Korea for its isolationism, continues to keep its telecom sector along with the broader populace under tight control; the country inched up just one point off the bottom of the world rankings for press and internet freedom in the most recent report from Reporters Without Borders; most social networks in the country are blocked, although locals do have access to the government-developed platform released in 2019; all internet users, however, need to identify themselves before logging on, and strict censorship over what can be viewed is in force; the end result is that Turkmenistan has one of the lowest penetration rates for internet access in the world (2022)

domestic: fixed-line nearly 12 per 100 and mobile-cellular teledensity is about 155 per 100 persons; first telecommunication satellite was launched in 2015 (2020)

international: country code - 993; linked by fiber-optic cable and microwave radio relay to other CIS republics and to other countries by leased connections to the Moscow international gateway switch; an exchange in Ashgabat switches international traffic through Turkey via Intelsat; satellite earth stations - 1 Orbita and 1 Intelsat (2018)

note: the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a significant impact on production and supply chains globally; since 2020, some aspects of the telecom sector have experienced a downturn, particularly in mobile device production; progress toward 5G implementation has resumed, as well as upgrades to infrastructure; consumer spending on telecom services has increased due to the surge in demand for capacity and bandwidth; the crucial nature of telecom services as a tool for work and school from home is still evident, and the spike in this area has seen growth opportunities for development of new tools and increased services

Broadcast media

broadcast media is government controlled and censored; 7 state-owned TV and 4 state-owned radio networks; satellite dishes and programming provide an alternative to the state-run media; officials sometimes limit access to satellite TV by removing satellite dishes

Internet country code

.tm

Internet users

total: 1,247,940 (July 2022 est.)

percent of population: 25.3% (July 2022 est.)

Broadband - fixed subscriptions

total: 10,000 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 0.2 (2020 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding Turkmenistan on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Turkmenistan 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Turkmenistan 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.