The same query returns 267 registered and 224 routed for Kazakhstan, 176 and 155 for Georgia, and 9 and 8 for Turkmenistan. We ran all nine country queries on 30 October; each reported the same data point, 28 October 2026 at 00:00 UTC, the latest available.

Registered and routed counts are as returned by RIPEstat. The last two columns are on a Corridor Signal calculation.

The two columns come from different records. The RIPEstat documentation for the country-asns call says registered networks are "based on registration information made public by the Regional Internet Registries", while the routing figure is "based on the data collected with the RIPE NCC's RIS system". The call returns only the two totals by default, and its data points follow the times RIS dumps are created, at 00:00, 08:00 and 16:00 UTC.

RIS, the Routing Information Service, is described by the RIPE NCC as a routing data collection platform that gathers BGP data through remote route collectors, typically located at internet exchange points, with volunteer networks peering with them. The routed count is taken from that collected data. A registered network that does not is a gap between two records. The documentation does not say why a given network is missing, so the figures show no more than that.

On our calculation, 1,729 of the 2,085 registered networks in the nine states are routed, or 82.9 per cent. Türkiye accounts for 215 of the 356 that are not, because its routed share of 80.7 per cent is the lowest in the group. The other eight sit between 83.9 per cent (Kazakhstan) and 88.9 per cent (Turkmenistan), a narrow band; in Turkmenistan the difference is one network.

The routed count is a useful denominator for other measures. Our analysis of exchange-point coverage used the Internet Society's Pulse tracker, whose page for Türkiye puts active networks at 881, against RIPEstat's 897 routed. The figures are close but not equal, and neither source says its count follows the other's rules, so a coverage percentage from one should not be applied to a count from the other. The earlier piece found Georgia at 21 per cent coverage and Tajikistan at 97 per cent; the routed counts above, 155 and 39, show how different the bases are.

The counts sit apart from the infrastructure stories we cover, such as Kazakhstan's west-east fibre route. Türkiye's 897 routed networks are more than the other eight states combined, which total 832. RIPEstat gives counts, not traffic, size or ownership.

RIPEstat refreshes the data three times a day, so a repeat query will move the figures. We will rerun the nine queries for a later edition of this column.

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Two later papers give other numbers for 2026. A summary of a government session on 6 January 2026 plans an additional 1.9 thousand villages for the year, and Corridor Signal has reported 370 villages connected in 2026 against a plan of 1,600, from the government's summary of a 6 October session. With about two months of 2026 left, this analysis sets the three plans side by side and lists what the papers do not say.

What was announced and what exists

The papers of 21 October 2025 are the Deputy Prime Minister's report and a government summary of the session chaired by Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov. The January summary is of a session that Bektenov also chaired, with Madiyev among the speakers. Corridor Signal read the English-language texts; it could not open the Kazakh-language version of the October report, which may carry figures that the English text does not. The percentages below are Corridor Signal's calculation.

A main line reaches a village; a local network takes fibre to homes. In the English text of the October report the first stage is a count and the second only a target, so the papers reviewed contain no count of villages where households can already connect. The January summary says only "high-speed internet access" and does not say which technology its 2.6 thousand and 1.9 thousand count. The 323 billion tenge for the period to the end of 2027 is not itemised in the papers reviewed; divided by 4,786 villages it is about 67 million tenge a village, an average and not a unit cost.

Three places where the figures need care

First, the year-end count matches October. The January summary says high-speed internet access had been provided to 2.6 thousand rural settlements by the end of 2025, close to the 2,606 reported on 21 October. If both count the same thing, few villages joined in the 71 days from 21 October to 31 December 2025, so a goal of more than 3,000 by the end of 2026 would have to be met almost wholly in 2026.

Second, the plan for 2026 appears three times. Meeting the October 2025 goal would put at least 5,606 villages on main lines, or 90.7 per cent of 6,179, which fits the 90 per cent in the session summary. The January plan of 1.9 thousand villages would take the count from 2,606 to about 4,506, or 72.9 per cent, and the October 2026 plan of 1,600 to 4,206, or 68.1 per cent. The January plan is about 300 villages above the October one, and the October plan is at least 1,400 below the 3,000. Each could count a different stage, or a plan may have changed, and none of the papers reviewed says which. A second page of the January session says that in the current and coming years more than 3,000 villages will be provided with high-speed internet through fibre lines, a wider window than the end of 2026.

Third, 90 per cent has two dates. The October session summary ties it to the end of 2026. The Deputy Prime Minister's report ties fibre lines to 90 per cent of rural settlements to the end of 2027, under the national project Affordable Internet, and says the same measures will leave more than 90 per cent of villages with high-speed internet by wired means. Ninety per cent of 6,179 villages is about 5,560, roughly 775 more than the 4,786 with household networks, and the papers do not say how those villages would be served. Corridor Signal also reported a programme figure of 3,781 villages with fibre by 2027 from a July 2025 government release, in the same report; the 4,786 are 1,005, or 26.6 per cent, more, and the papers do not say whether the two count the same thing. Corridor Signal reported that the World Bank's appraisal for its DARE project counts 1,214 villages in four regions that an earlier programme linked to the backbone but where no network reaches homes, so the stage between a main line and a home connection has its own count there.

Three items would settle most of this: a statement of which stage the 2.6 thousand counts, a statement of what the 1.9 thousand and 1,600 plans count and why they differ, and a count of villages with household networks. None appears in the English-language papers reviewed.

Dates to watch: the end of 2026, when the goal of more than 3,000 further villages on main lines and the plans of 1.9 thousand and 1,600 villages fall due, together with the West-East backbone, which Corridor Signal reported half laid and which the Times of Central Asia says has more than 2,200 km laid of about 4,500 km, with construction scheduled for completion by then; and the end of 2027, for household networks in 4,786 villages and 323 billion tenge of investment.

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The release also gives a table for the 14 regions it counts, Karakalpakstan, the 12 regions and the city of Tashkent. Developing Telecoms and UzDaily carried the national totals; the regional split below is from the operator's own table, and it shows where the work went.

Upgrades ahead of plan, new sites behind

The 1,566 upgrades are 59 more than planned, or 104 per cent of the target, the release says. The planned number has been exceeded in 12 of the 14 regions and met in full in Navoi Region.

New construction is further behind. The 380 new stations are 88 per cent of the 431 planned, or 51 short on Corridor Signal's arithmetic. The release says the programme targets have been exceeded in Tashkent, Bukhara and Navoi Regions, and met in full in Samarkand and Khorezm Regions.

Figures are for 18 October 2026, from the operator's table of newly commissioned and modernised stations under the 2025 to 2026 programme.

Where the new stations went

Samarkand Region received the most new stations, 62, followed by Tashkent city and Kashkadarya Region with 52 each, Surkhandarya Region with 39 and Bukhara Region with 31. Those five regions took 236 of the 380, or 62 per cent, on Corridor Signal's arithmetic. At the other end, Namangan and Syrdarya regions each got 6, Fergana Region 7 and Andijan Region 9.

The pattern differs from the upgrades. Andijan, Fergana and Namangan regions had 381 upgrades between them, 24 per cent of the national total, but only 22 new stations, 6 per cent of the total. Tashkent city and Tashkent Region together had 383 upgrades, 24 per cent, and 73 new stations. The release says the largest volume of frequency additions, 442 completed in all, was recorded in Kashkadarya, Samarkand, Bukhara and Surkhandarya regions.

Bukhara is also where Uztelecom opened a data centre on 22 September, as Corridor Signal reported.

375 stations support 5G, half of them in Tashkent city

Of the 375 base stations that support 5G, Tashkent city has 189, Samarkand Region 84, Tashkent Region 19, Andijan Region 13, Fergana and Namangan regions 12 each and Kashkadarya Region 11, the release says. That accounts for 340 stations, so the seven regions the release does not list share the other 35, an average of five each on Corridor Signal's arithmetic. Tashkent city alone holds 50 per cent of the 5G stations.

The release says 5G stations are present in all 14 regions and adds that their presence "does not mean that 5G is available at every location within it", because coverage depends on the distance to the station and on the device.

The totals sit alongside the minister's reply to parliament on 20 October, which put fibre at 98.1 per cent of settlements and mobile coverage on 95.5 per cent of international highways, as Corridor Signal reported. The operator's figures are its own account of progress and are not independently audited; the next test is whether the 51-station gap on new sites closes before the programme ends.

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The ministry also said the city was first in the country to close every coverage gap, or "white spot", identified in 2024. Its statement describes fibre as the most advanced and reliable data transmission technology in use today. It gives no subscriber count for the copper switch-off and no date for the final disconnections.

The statement came from a meeting in Turkestan region on the national "Accessible Internet" project, attended by ministry officials and operators. The region has 801 settlements, made up of seven cities and 794 villages.

Backbone fibre at 408 of 794 villages

The ministry said backbone fibre-optic lines now reach 408 of the region's villages. It expects that number to rise to 570 by the end of 2026 and to 778 by 2027. Set against the 794 villages the ministry lists, the 2027 figure would leave 16 villages without a backbone connection, and the ministry's statement does not say how they would be served.

On those figures, backbone fibre covers about 51 per cent of the region's villages today, would reach about 72 per cent by the end of this year and about 98 per cent in 2027. The ministry did not publish that arithmetic itself, and it does not say how many households in each village can use the lines. A backbone connection brings fibre to a village, not necessarily to each home.

The step from 408 to 570 means 162 more villages in roughly two months, on the ministry's timetable. The step to 778 in 2027 adds another 208. The statement gives no breakdown by operator or by month.

A public-sector fibre build with Kazakhtelecom

A separate build under an investment agreement with Kazakhtelecom is laying fibre to public and budget-funded organisations. The ministry said the project will connect 649 such organisations at 372 points over 2,638.1 km of planned lines, of which 852.2 km, or 32 per cent, has been laid. Work covers 12 districts of the region.

The ministry listed 267 schools, 257 medical institutions and rural first-aid posts, and 80 district administrations among the sites, along with police, border, customs and emergency service facilities. A report by Baq.kz on the same meeting repeated these figures.

Kazakhtelecom has been moving copper subscribers in the region to fibre under its SWAP network modernisation programme. In August, KazNews reported that the company would transfer 13,105 subscribers in Turkestan region from copper to fibre over two years, and that technicians had already switched the first 827 customers. The report cited the town of Lenger in Tolebi district, where 416 fibre ports had been built, 52 subscribers were connected and 234 families in all were to be switched to fibre.

Mobile networks and the remaining gaps

On mobile, the ministry said 4G is available in 702 settlements and is planned to reach 772 by 2030. The older 3G standard still runs in 39 villages and is due to be switched off completely by 2028. A total of 138 5G base stations have been installed in the region.

Of 95 problem locations identified earlier in the region, 77 (81 per cent) have been resolved, and work is under way at the other 18 (19 per cent). Turkestan city is therefore ahead of the region as a whole on coverage gaps, a point the Baq.kz report also made.

Roads and border crossings come later. Under an agreement with Transtelecom, survey work and coordinates for five antenna-mast structures along key highways are complete, with construction planned for 2027. Seven border crossing points, named in the statement as B. Konysbayev, Atameken, Tselinny, Kaplanbek, Syrdariya, Kazygurt and Zhibek Zholy, are to get quality mobile and internet service by 2027, once masts and power supply are in place. Four tourist sites, Sauran, the Ukasha Ata shrine, the Tuttybulak waterfall and the Akmeshit cave, are to be connected by 2028.

The Turkestan figures sit within a national programme with a large gap to close this year. In early October the government reported that 370 of 1,600 planned villages had been connected nationwide by early October. The region is also the largest site of the World Bank-funded rural broadband project, which pays operators to bring fibre to homes, a separate effort that the ministry covered the same day in its own statement. An earlier piece explained the loan and its matching grants.

The copper statement is a milestone for one city rather than a measure of the region. The ministry gives a clear end state for backbone fibre, 778 of 794 villages by 2027, and it names 2028 as the year 3G ends. Readers tracking delivery have three numbers to check against the next ministry update: 570 villages by the end of 2026, 852.2 km of public-sector fibre laid out of 2,638.1 km, and the 18 mobile locations still open.

Read on Corridor Signal

Ministry officials and a World Bank delegation toured the region to see construction under the project "Accelerated Digitalisation for an Inclusive Economy of Kazakhstan", which the Bank's papers call the Digital Acceleration for an Inclusive Economy project, or DARE. The ministry describes it as a scheme to subsidise high-speed internet connections to rural households, paid for from a government loan from the Bank.

From 212 villages to five by December

The release says the scheme will cover 212 villages in Turkestan region, home to 387,000 people, or about 68,000 households. Tenders have been announced for 26 of them and contracts concluded for 17. By the end of 2026 the ministry expects construction and installation to be fully finished in the first 5 villages, with subsidies paid to the operators that built them.

On those figures, tenders cover 12.3 per cent of the region's 212 villages, signed contracts 8.0 per cent and planned completions 2.4 per cent, by Corridor Signal's calculation. The release does not name the operators, the villages or the contract values, and it does not say how much of the 17-village group is expected to finish in 2027.

The release describes the 17 as at the design and survey stage. Its wording leaves open whether the five villages due for completion are among the 17 contracted. A related ministry release from the same day covers the region's mobile coverage and says Turkestan city has become the first in Kazakhstan to retire ADSL copper lines entirely.

Turkestan's share of the national scheme

Damir Seisembekov, chairman of the ministry's Telecommunications Committee, called the region the "absolute leader" by scale. In the Russian text, in Corridor Signal's translation, he said that of more than 1,100 villages covered nationwide, over 200 are in Turkestan, where fibre is brought to the household. He linked the priority to the region's high birth rate and number of children per family.

The release's background note puts the national programme at 1,123 villages in 2026 and 2027, with more than 445,000 households, or about 2.3 million people, gaining access. It plans about 3,800 km of new optical networks and coverage of at least 80 per cent of households in the villages included. Turkestan's 212 villages are 18.9 per cent of the 1,123, and its 387,000 people are 16.8 per cent of the 2.3 million, by Corridor Signal's calculation.

The village count for the region has moved. When the ministry opened the first grant competition in February, the business outlet Digital Business reported, citing the ministry, that Turkestan would have 195 villages of the 1,123, the largest regional share across 17 regions. The October release says 212 and does not explain the difference of 17. The Bank's project appraisal document, dated February 2024, had named Turkestan as one of four priority regions with 1,214 villages between them, so the scheme's geography has widened since design.

How the money moves

The subsidy is paid after the work, not before. Digital Business reported in February that operators build with their own funds and the state then compensates up to 50 per cent of confirmed capital costs through matching grants, with the networks staying on the operators' balance sheets. The ministry's October release says subsidies will be paid for the first five villages by year-end, which would be the first visible output of the scheme.

The Bank's latest implementation status report, dated 29 June 2026, shows how early the loan was. It records US$0.27 million disbursed of US$80.95 million, or 0.33 per cent, says the first three rounds of matching grants had been launched and advanced through initial selection and award stages, and leaves the progress and implementation ratings at moderately satisfactory. All the report's outcome indicators were still at baseline, including 1.1 million people newly using broadband, a target for June 2028. Our explainer of 27 October sets out the grant rules and the loan's history.

The ministry's release gives no disbursement total. The Bank's next status report, which is due around December on its six-monthly rhythm, should show whether payments have started and whether the Bank moves the ratings.

Three numbers decide whether Turkestan meets the year-end promise: how many of the 26 tendered villages reach contract, whether the five completions are verified by the project unit and paid, and whether the 212-village total holds. The national picture is a wider test. The government's summary of an early October session reported 370 villages connected in 2026 against a plan of 1,600, a gap Corridor Signal set out in an earlier report. The two counts are not the same measure, and the papers reviewed do not say how far they overlap.

For the Bank, five finished villages with subsidies paid would put actual disbursement against the 0.33 per cent reported in June.

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The first phase ran on a mobile private network at the Istanbul Expo Center and the second at Turkcell's Küçükyalı Plaza, according to the statement. Turkcell's partner was Tiami Networks, whose PolyEdge solution was used to deploy the private 5G networks, Developing Telecoms reported. The use cases the operator listed include crowd management, indoor location, facility security, smart cities, autonomous systems and disaster management.

Vehbi Çağrı Güngör, Turkcell's deputy general manager for network technologies, said the operator could detect entries to and exits from buildings in real time under field conditions, according to the statement, and presented the absence of cameras as a privacy benefit, according to the report. Neither the statement nor the report says how accuracy was measured, how many people were in the test areas or when, if ever, the function might be offered commercially.

Where ISAC sits in the 6G timetable

ISAC is one of six usage scenarios in the ITU's framework for IMT-2030, the formal name for 6G, set out in Recommendation ITU-R M.2160, which the Radiocommunication Assembly approved in November 2023, according to the ITU's IMT-2030 page. The others are immersive communication, hyper reliable and low latency communication, massive communication, ubiquitous connectivity, and artificial intelligence and communication.

The standards work is still at the stage of requirements. The ITU invites proposals for candidate radio technologies between February 2027 and February 2029, and draft reports on technical performance requirements and on evaluation guidelines go to its Study Group 5 for approval in December 2026, the page says. A field test now is therefore a test of a capability, not of a 6G standard, which does not yet exist.

The Samsung memorandum

Two days later, on 23 October, Turkcell and Samsung signed a memorandum at Samsung's headquarters in South Korea to make 650,000 5G-compatible Samsung smartphones available to Turkcell customers by the end of 2027, at least 200,000 of them in the premium segment, Habertürk reported. The memorandum covers all of Samsung's 5G models, and a trade-in scheme aimed at customers still using 4.5G phones runs from November 2026 through 2027.

The 650,000 figure is not new. When the two companies signed at the Mobile World Congress in March, the deal itself covered 150,000 phones, 100,000 locally made Galaxy A models and 50,000 Galaxy S models, within a stated vision of 650,000 Samsung 5G devices, Türkiye Gazetesi reported. Turkcell's general manager, Ali Taha Koç, said then that about 30 per cent of phones in Türkiye were 5G-compatible. The October memorandum attaches a date and a premium floor to the target; neither report says how many of the first 150,000 have been sold.

Handsets are the gap the subscriber totals hide. Of 44.5 million 5G subscribers BTK counted at the end of the second quarter, 26.1 million were able to use the service, and the regulator gave device or SIM incompatibility as the reason, as Corridor Signal reported. The count has since passed 45 million, BTK's president said in October, and Turkcell's licence coverage duties start with villages by 2028, under the authorisation terms.

Read on Corridor Signal

This first edition finds four markets with published figures and no single measure that all four report. The 5G Scorecard sets out, country by country, the latest 5G figures published by regulators, governments and operators in the corridor, with the document behind every cell.

Türkiye: a user count three months in

Türkiye's ICT Authority (BTK) is the only regulator in the table that counts 5G users. Its second-quarter market report puts 5G subscriptions at 44,487,035 and real 5G users, excluding machine-to-machine lines, at 44,268,946 at the end of June, less than three months after the service began on 1 April. The regulator separates those totals from active use. Subscribers whose device and SIM card both support 5G numbered 26,102,884, and 5G-compatible devices 29,777,164; the report says some subscribers cannot use the service because their handset or SIM is not compatible. The active figure, not the headline, is the one comparable to a usage measure elsewhere. The report, which BTK announced in a notice of 30 September, gives no 5G coverage figure or site count.

Kazakhstan, Armenia and Georgia

Kazakhstan measures its build. The government reported 1,144 5G base stations in 20 cities in June 2024 (government release) and more than 4,000 in more than 20 cities on 6 October 2026 (session summary), a more than threefold rise. The only population figure is an operator's: Kcell's 5G network reached 53.54 per cent of the population at the end of 2025 (full-year release) and 64.29 per cent at the end of June 2026, with 3,034 base stations (half-year release). No national user count appears in the documents reviewed.

In Armenia the figures come from the operators and use different bases. Ucom says its 5G network covers 94.62 per cent of the population, in 48 cities and 447 villages, as of 16 January 2026, on its coverage page. Viva says its network covers about 80 per cent of inhabited areas, in Yerevan and 32 cities across eight regions, in its release of 13 October. A share of population and a share of inhabited areas cannot be ranked against each other. The regulator's 2025 award to Viva carries coverage duties due within three to seven years, the Public Services Regulatory Commission said.

Georgia's regulator told Parliament that 5G became available to subscribers of all three mobile operators in 2025, and that it measures 5G and VoLTE quality with a monitoring system, its statement of 22 September says. It published no users, coverage or sites in that statement. For Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan this edition found no published 5G figures in the regulator and ministry documents reviewed, so they have no rows.

Method

Each cell carries the latest figure in a primary document, as published, with its date. Operator figures are labelled with the operator's name. "Not published" means no figure was found in the documents reviewed, not that none exists. The threefold rise in Kazakhstan's base stations is a Data Desk calculation from the two government figures. The next edition, in the first week of February, will add Türkiye's third-quarter report and any new figures sent to the Data Desk.

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The World Bank's procurement record gives an estimated contract value of $6.5 million and a bid deadline of 16 November 2026, and the notice says the contract will be jointly financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB). The same contract, with the same title and estimate, was first advertised on 25 June 2025. The October notice does not say why the tender is being run again, whether the first round was cancelled, or whether bidders from 2025 may resubmit. It gives no quantities: those are in the bidding document on Georgia's state procurement portal.

What Open Net is buying

The goods include aggregation routers, access devices, core routers, air conditioners, 48V power supplies, environmental monitoring systems, a network operations centre and firewalls, with installation, configuration and warranty, the notice says. Bids are submitted electronically in two envelopes, a technical part and a password-protected financial part opened at least 10 business days after the technical results are notified. Evaluation weights price at 70 per cent and rated technical and non-price criteria at 30 per cent, and no domestic margin of preference applies. The successful bidder's beneficial ownership must be disclosed in the award notice.

Active equipment is what turns the passive fibre into a working wholesale network. As of 2025, 18 internet service providers and three mobile operators were providing services over Open Net infrastructure, a statement from the Communications Commission (ComCom) dated 22 September says. The statement also lists fibre backbone completed in Chiatura, Sachkhere, Terjola, Tkibuli, Chkhorotsku, Khobi, Senaki, part of Tsalenjikha and Zugdidi. The tender notice itself does not say how many sites phase 2 covers or when the equipment must be live.

The fibre contracts behind it

The passive build continues in parallel. On 21 August the World Bank published the award of the phase 4 Kakheti-Tianeti section to L&K of Rustavi and BUILD-7 of Tbilisi for GEL 16,924,630, with a duration of 450 days from a notification of award dated 31 July. The notice lists the evaluated prices of the other bidders: China's Hengtong Optic-Electric at GEL 22,000,000, Kazakhstan's BT-Signal at GEL 24,319,221.14, Türkiye's MBD Insaat at GEL 24,099,970 and HGC Electric at GEL 23,974,504, and Georgian bidders including NSYSTEM at GEL 19,548,320. The winning price was about 13 per cent below the next lowest evaluated bid, from Türkiye's Arsen Elektrik at GEL 19,514,256.20, on Backhaul's arithmetic.

Three other phase 4 sections, Kvemo Kartli, Tbilisi-Marneuli-Tsalka and Tsalka-Akhalkalaki-Akhaltsikhe, were awarded in June, the World Bank's project record shows, and an engineering supervision contract for the Khulo-Akhaltsikhe-Borjomi works was awarded on 24 August. Earlier phases in the same record include Mestia in phase 2 and Shida Kartli, Zestaponi-Kharagauli and Khulo-Adigeni in phase 3.

What the notices do not say

The tender notice cites loan 9161-GE, while the phase 4 award cites loan 98630, and neither document explains how the two World Bank loans and the EIB co-financing are divided. None of the notices gives a completion date for the network as a whole or the wholesale prices Open Net will charge operators. A separate World Bank-financed contract in Georgia, for routers and switches for the National Agency for Public Registry, went to Green Systems of Tbilisi for GEL 470,371.98 on 29 September under an agriculture and land project, the award notice shows; it is not part of Log-In Georgia.

The next date is 16 November, when the technical envelopes for phase 2 are due to be opened.

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The Digital Acceleration for an Inclusive Economy project, known as DARE, became effective on 20 January 2026. The report says its first three rounds of matching grants have been launched and have advanced through initial selection and award stages, calls the project early-stage with low disbursement, and keeps its progress and implementation ratings at moderately satisfactory.

How the grants work

The Telecommunications Committee, which sits under the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, implements the project through a dedicated unit, the Bank's environmental and social commitment plan states. Internet service providers (ISPs) apply for matching grants to build backhaul and access networks that connect households, public institutions and businesses, the loan agreement says. A grant may not exceed the equivalent of US$500,000 per sub-project, and one ISP may win at most two in a single call. Grants are not repayable unless the committee suspends or recovers them, and each ISP must contribute at a level set in a Matching Grants Manual that the loan agreement does not reproduce.

The project appraisal document puts the contribution at US$36 million of private capital alongside US$90 million of Bank financing for the infrastructure component, or 28.6 per cent of its US$126 million cost, by Corridor Signal's calculation. It targets villages that an earlier "250+" programme linked to the fibre backbone but where no network reached homes. The document counts 1,214 such villages in four priority regions, Akmola, Turkestan, West Kazakhstan and East Kazakhstan. It says 28.2 per cent of the population, or 5.4 million people, lived in unserved or underserved areas, including 1.7 million with no 4G or fibre access, and that 46 per cent of the unserved population, or 775,000 people, lived in those four regions.

The appraisal expects small operators to connect at least half of households in grant areas and to recover their outlay in one to two years. It estimates that without public money the net present value to commercial ISPs would be negative US$29.57 million. It also names a risk that state-backed operators dominating the fixed and mobile markets could capture the subsidy, and says the manual may require winners to give wholesale access to the co-financed infrastructure and may limit the number of lots one operator can win.

Where it stands

The loan was approved on 22 February 2024 and signed on 12 December 2024. The June 2025 report said ratification was awaited, and the December 2025 report said it had come in July 2025, with the project unit, the operations manual and the grants manual still being finalised. Effectiveness on 20 January 2026 came 404 days after signing, by Corridor Signal's calculation. The loan agreement set an effectiveness deadline of 180 days after signature, and the reports reviewed do not say whether it was extended.

The dollar size of the loan has changed. The June 2026 report lists US$80.95 million against US$92.43 million at approval and in the December 2025 report, with nothing cancelled. The loan agreement states the amount as ¥13,083,100,000, and the Bank's stakeholder engagement plan gives the infrastructure component as ¥12.69 billion. At the rate implied by the June figure, about ¥161.6 to the dollar by Corridor Signal's calculation, that component is worth about US$78.5 million, which at the grant cap would fund at least 157 sub-projects. The reports do not explain the change in the dollar figure.

All outcome indicators in the June report remain at baseline. Targets for June 2028 are 1.1 million people newly using broadband, a rise in the share of households in project areas that subscribe to high-quality broadband, defined in the appraisal as 10 Mbps or faster, from 37 per cent to 45 per cent, US$36 million of private capital mobilised, and 70 per cent of beneficiaries satisfied. Risk as a whole is rated moderate, with political and governance risk and sector strategy risk rated substantial.

For context, Kazakhstan had 15.3 fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people in 2024, up from 14.3 in 2023, World Bank data show.

The next report is due around December

The Bank has published these reports roughly every six months, so the next is due around December. The June report said an upgrade in ratings could be considered then if progress is sustained. The loan closes on 31 December 2028. A revised commitment plan was dated 2 September 2026 on the Bank's documents site. Compared with the January 2024 version, Corridor Signal found updated agency names and wording changes but no new substantive commitment, and ISPs must still prepare site-specific assessments before bidding documents are issued for sub-projects that need them.

The project featured at the International Telecommunication Union's regional forum in Dushanbe on 29 and 30 September. A World Bank digital specialist cited the US$92 million project, supported by competitive grants to ISPs, as an example of its work in Central Asia, the forum's draft outcome report says.

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The account does not name a supplier, give a cost or a source of funding, or say how many sites, which regions or which generation of mobile technology the equipment is for. It gives no timetable for delivery or installation.

Altyn Asyr is a closed joint-stock company. B. Annayev, Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet, told the online meeting that measures were being taken to improve the national system of cellular communication and maintain its availability, and that "a great significance is attached to partnership with leading world companies". President Serdar Berdimuhamedov approved the proposal and gave Annayev "a number of instructions", the account says.

A tender in March

Altyn Asyr announced an international tender for the supply of 5G and 4G base stations and the modernisation of its mobile network across several regions of Turkmenistan, Trend reported on 26 March. The October account does not mention that tender or say whether the approved equipment comes from it, and no award appears in the cabinet accounts reviewed for this report. Since then the operator has launched 5G in the Awaza National Tourist Zone ahead of international events held there from 7 to 9 October, a Trend report of 15 October citing the government's press service said, without giving a number of sites or a supplier. Services provided by the Ministry of Communications grew by 15.3 per cent in January to September, the State News Agency's account of the cabinet meeting of 2 October says.

Earlier decisions this year

The agency's accounts show the cabinet approved earlier proposals for the sector on 20 February and 20 March. On 20 February Annayev reported on steps by the Ministry of Communications to modernise industries with digital solutions, and on cooperation with "technologically advanced countries" meant to support the Concept for the Development of a Digital System; the president approved a proposal to strengthen the material and technical base of the ministry, the account of that meeting says.

On 6 March the president instructed Annayev to modernise the material and technical basis of the communications sector "according to time realities on a constant basis", the account of 6 March says. The same account puts growth in the services of the Ministry of Communications at 13.2 per cent in January and February. On 20 March Annayev reported on work to improve the quality of telecommunication services, expand the internet network and increase the throughput of international transit data links, and the president approved a proposal on modernising the communication system and improving the quality of its services, the 20 March account says.

What the accounts leave out

None of the four accounts gives a figure for spending, sites, capacity or subscribers, and none names a supplier. The only figure specific to communications in them is the growth rate of the Ministry of Communications' services, given as a rate of increase without a value in manat or a split between mobile, fixed and internet services. Nor do they say how the new equipment relates to the 5G service in Awaza. The first edition of Corridor Signal's 5G Scorecard found no published 5G figures for Turkmenistan, and the 17 October decision adds none. The Internet Society's Pulse tracker lists no active internet exchange point in the country, Corridor Signal has reported.

The 20 March account says the work then under way was guided by instructions the president had given earlier, and the October decision again ends with instructions whose content the account does not give. The 17 October account sets no date for the equipment to be delivered.

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The reply answers a parliamentary inquiry that the chamber decided to send at a sitting reported on 29 September by the state news agency UzA. UzA's account says the targets of the Digital Uzbekistan 2030 strategy for 2026 include mobile internet on 96 per cent of highways of international importance, fibre-optic lines to 98.2 per cent of settlements and an international internet connection speed of 4,500 Gbit/s. The inquiry asked the minister for substantiated explanations of the work on high-speed internet for regions and social facilities, broadband mobile coverage of settlements, mobile internet on international highways and fibre coverage of settlements.

The Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival) Democratic Party faction of the Legislative Chamber, the lower house, considered the reply at a meeting the chamber reported on 19 October. The full chamber took note of it on 20 October, with 124 deputies voting in favour and none against, abstaining or not voting, the voting record for that sitting shows.

Close on all three

Mobile communications and internet now reach 99.5 per cent of settlements, the faction's account says. More than 11,000 mobile base stations have been installed since the start of 2026, bringing the total to 110,500, and 95.5 per cent of the international highways have mobile internet; the plan is to reach 96 per cent by the end of the year. Fibre-optic lines have grown from 119,500 km in 2020 to 397,000 km, 3.3 times the length, and reach 98.1 per cent of settlements. The same account says 10,657 schools, 6,988 kindergartens, 5,786 health facilities and 8,935 mahalla citizens' assemblies are fully covered by the internet.

On international capacity, the reply gives the same number as UzA's account of the inquiry. Capacity of connections to international networks stood at 1,200 Gbit/s in 2020 and has reached 4,400 Gbit/s, with 4,500 Gbit/s expected by the end of 2026 and 5,000 Gbit/s targeted for 2030, UzDaily reported from the reply. Backbone capacity rose from 400 to 600 Gbit/s at regional level and from 40 to 60 Gbit/s at district level compared with 2020, the same report says. When the chamber sent the inquiry, UzA's account put the total capacity of international internet gateways at 94 Gbit/s in 2017 and 4,400 Gbit/s in 2025, so the reply reports no increase on the 2025 figure, with 100 Gbit/s to add by the end of the year.

What the reply leaves out

The chamber's account summarises the reply rather than publishing it, and neither that account nor UzDaily's report splits the base stations between 4G and 5G or gives a 5G count. Neither gives the number of homes or businesses connected to fibre, as distinct from settlements reached, or says how a settlement or a highway counts as covered, or whether the 397,000 km measures cable routes or fibres. The reply says Uzbekistan rose from 133rd to 72nd place in an international ranking of mobile internet speed and from 112th to 73rd for fixed internet speed, first in Central Asia, without naming the ranking or the month. The first edition of Corridor Signal's 5G Scorecard found no published 5G figures for Uzbekistan, and the reply, as reported, adds none.

Quality, by the appeals count

UzA's account of the sitting that sent the inquiry also said that, alongside infrastructure, the quality and coverage of internet services for the population had to expand, particularly in remote areas, social facilities and transport routes. Uzkomnazorat, the inspectorate that handles appeals about communications services, received 7,215 appeals from January to September 2026, it reported on 13 October, against 5,854 in the same period of 2025, Backhaul's sum of the 5,731 from individuals and 123 from organisations it lists. Internet services drew 3,593 appeals, 2,913 of them about service quality, and mobile services 2,567, of which 1,969 concerned quality. The inspectorate traced 561 appeals to the fault of service providers and issued 289 binding instructions; the fixes it lists include work on problems in communication lines and on the operation of base stations.

Deputies at the faction meeting found that every question in the inquiry had been answered in full, the chamber's account says, and UzDaily reported that deputies at the sitting called for an objective assessment of the work and for the strategy's targets to be met on time. Jamol Makhsudov, the deputy minister of digital technologies, gave similar coverage figures to an ITU forum in Dushanbe in late September, Corridor Signal reported, and a World Bank-financed project has delivered a design for rural broadband partnerships, as reported on 23 October. The three targets fall due at the end of 2026.

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The report puts the Partner2Connect portfolio targeting the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region at 68 pledges from 43 entities with an estimated value of $2.29 billion, with implementation information reported for 19 of the pledges, or 28 per cent.

The report does not list the pledges, their sponsors or the countries they serve, and does not say how much of the $2.29 billion has been spent. It is marked as a draft, with comments invited until 15 October 2026.

The Dushanbe proposal

Parviz Noriyon, first deputy head of the Communication Service under the Government of Tajikistan, set out six areas for cooperation: resilient and diversified connectivity, lower-cost digital transit, green digital corridors and data centres, financing and preparation of bankable projects, artificial intelligence, and shared digital public infrastructure, the report says. He described route diversification and redundancy as development priorities for landlocked countries "rather than purely technical choices".

The draft call to action sets out six pillars, an open commitments registry and annual reporting, "without creating new institutions or legal obligations". Noriyon proposed that countries nominate national coordinators by the end of November 2026, submit initial partner commitments by the end of December and hold a first coordination meeting in Dushanbe in the first quarter of 2027. The report does not say which governments have endorsed the draft.

Isfandiyori Sadullo, head of the Communication Service and chair of the forum, asked for ITU technical support for Tajikistan's Communications Sector Development Strategy to 2040 and for a feasibility study for a Digital Village initiative. He also proposed work on a mechanism to improve the affordability and quality of international roaming across Central Asia and the CIS; the report records "different views" on roaming, including the need to account for eSIM and over-the-top services.

Coverage claims from the neighbours

Jamol Makhsudov, Uzbekistan's deputy minister of digital technologies, said more than 99.5 per cent of settlements are covered by mobile internet and 98 per cent have access to fibre-optic lines. Altynbek Toktorbaev, chairman of the Kyrgyz Republic's Communications Regulation and Supervision Service, cited about 3,500 km of fibre built and connectivity for about 99 per cent of settlements, with satellite solutions for the remaining mountainous areas. A Kyrgyz regulator official described a pilot that brought satellite internet to a high-mountain school in Issyk-Kul region.

The report records these as statements by officials. It does not give the period the Kyrgyz fibre figure covers or the source of the Uzbek coverage data. ITU's regional director put internet use across the CIS at 93 per cent in 2025.

Tcell's chief executive, Ozodkhon Davlatshoev, spoke on mobilising finance for connectivity and on "green, lower-cost data-centre infrastructure supported by Tajikistan's energy resources", the report says, without figures. After a presentation by the director general of GSOA, the satellite operators' association, the discussion stressed blanket licensing for user terminals and "cost-recovery-based spectrum fees rather than auction models".

The forum, organised by the ITU and co-hosted by Tajikistan's Communication Service, ran back to back with a meeting of the Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communications, the ITU's event page says. Separately, an ITU project in Tajikistan has produced a regulatory assessment covering AI, digital public infrastructure, cybersecurity and innovation, and held AI policy training in Dushanbe on 3 and 4 September for more than 30 specialists, including from telecom operators, according to an ITU update of 18 September.

The next dates are the end of November, for coordinators under the Dushanbe proposal, and publication of the final outcome report after the comment period.

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The decision was published in Official Gazette No. 33402 on 16 October. The protocol, signed in Ankara on 19 August 2026, caps the wholesale price of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service at $18 a month for packages of up to 100 Mbps, the text shows. It does not name the company.

What the investor must deliver

The protocol calls the Turkish-authorised company the investor. Its first-stage commitment covers 150,000 independent units, meaning households or workplaces, in one year, and depends on TRNC institutions granting excavation rights, permits, tax and incentive arrangements without delay, the text says. If the target is missed, the TRNC Council of Ministers may allow one more year. If the miss is shown to result clearly from the investor's own breach or fault, the TRNC may ask Türkiye for a different investor, or authorise any other company, whether or not registered in the TRNC, to carry out and market the work. The text does not say when the first year starts.

The investor must plan, build, maintain and operate the fibre infrastructure for 25 years from the signing date of the protocol, then hand it over free of mortgages, complete and in working order to the TRNC Telecommunications Department or another public body that the TRNC government names, the amended text says. The base protocol was signed on 24 September 2025, so the term would run to September 2050 if measured from that date, by Corridor Signal's calculation. The TRNC has the same rights if there is a change of control, which the protocol defines as Türkiye's direct or indirect state shareholding in the authorised company falling below 50 per cent. Hiring is to give priority to TRNC citizens where possible, without a quota, and the investor is to train Telecommunications Department staff, the text says.

Wholesale caps and who sells what

The investor is to provide wholesale fixed broadband over the fibre access network, from the exchange to homes and workplaces. The Telecommunications Department keeps voice services and corporate data circuits such as leased lines and metro Ethernet, and sets the circuits' sale prices after obtaining a written opinion from the TRNC Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTHK), the protocol says. The wholesale price caps, before taxes, are:

• Unlimited FTTH packages up to 100 Mbps: $18 per subscriber per month.
• Faster packages: $5 per subscriber per month is added to the cap for each additional 100 Mbps.
• Wholesale fixed broadband connection and relocation: $50 each. Wholesale fixed voice connection and relocation: $50 each.

The caps are to be converted into lira at the TRNC Central Bank's effective selling rates on the date the protocol takes effect and updated every six months by the change in the TRNC consumer price index over the previous six months, the text says. For corporate circuits on the new fibre, the Telecommunications Department bills end users and shares revenue with the investor at 50 per cent, after deducting what it pays the investor for international internet exit, the protocol says.

Retail entry tests and Türkiye's money

The retail company in which the investor will hold shares in the TRNC may obtain an internet service provider (ISP) authorisation and sell directly if active fibre connections marketed by ISPs fall below set shares of the premises reached: 20 per cent in the first year, 35 in the second, 40 in the third, 45 in the fourth and 50 in the fifth. If the footprint stayed at 150,000 premises, those tests would equal 30,000 active connections in the first year and 75,000 in the fifth, by Corridor Signal's calculation. At the $18 cap, 75,000 connections would bring in $16.2 million a year in wholesale fees, before connection charges. The same company faces no special pricing or service-level requirements beyond those for other ISPs, though BTHK may apply significant-market-power obligations to it after a market analysis, the text says.

Türkiye is to invest $27 million in the Telecommunications Department's systems in the first two years and further sums as needed over 25 years. In return, no separate fee will be charged if Türkiye uses the department's backbone, the protocol says. Both governments also undertake that the arrangements will not reduce total revenue from the TRNC telecommunications sector.

The investor's FTTH systems are to be hosted inside the TRNC, with the TRNC responsible for supplying a Tier 2 certified data centre site and structure, and its company is exempt from TRNC limits on foreign capital for this investment, the text says. Either side may terminate with one year's notice if the protocol, other legislation or the public interest is breached. The additional protocol gives no total cost for the fibre build and names no investor. In Resolution 541 of 1983, the UN Security Council called on states not to recognise any Cypriot state other than the Republic of Cyprus.

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The figure compares with a revised target of US$8 million that had itself been cut from US$60 million at approval, and the report rates the outcome moderately satisfactory and the risk to development outcome substantial. The report is back in view because a World Bank specialist told the International Telecommunication Union's regional forum in Dushanbe on 29 and 30 September that a new US$80 million digital operation is under preparation for the country, the forum's draft outcome report says.

What was delivered

Bank financing was US$50 million at approval and US$57 million after US$7 million of additional financing in January 2024, and the report shows US$52.05 million disbursed. Its main results:

• The national fibre-optic network grew from 36,530 km in April 2023 to 58,899 km in July 2025, against a target of 39,030 km. The indicator measures the national network, and the sections reviewed do not split out the length financed by the project.
• The project installed 212 points of presence for wholesale access and 30 backbone nodes, and added cross-border fibre links with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
• A total of 3,882 social facilities were provided with internet access, of which 1,432 were connected directly by the project, and a seven-year financing mechanism for their service after closing was agreed.
• People newly using broadband rose from 2.3 million in 2017 to 4.7 million, against a target of 3.9 million. The report says earlier gains were driven largely by market developments outside the project.

A slow start and a private-money shortfall

Disbursement was US$1.53 million at the 2021 mid-term review and US$6.61 million, or 13 per cent of the original US$50 million envelope, in May 2023, the report says. Ratings for development objectives were unsatisfactory from October 2021 to June 2022, moderately satisfactory from June 2023 and satisfactory in December 2025. The first large connectivity contract was signed 3.8 years after effectiveness, in December 2022, and the government cloud contract 5.5 years after, in August 2024. Both had to be re-bid for lack of vendor interest, and extensions totalled 31 months. The implementing agency changed management seven times and was renamed three times. The Bank rated its own quality at entry moderately unsatisfactory.

The connectivity contract went to a joint venture of Kyrgyztelecom and a private operator, Elcat. The venture invested US$7.82 million in project-linked infrastructure, close to the US$8 million target, but most of it is attributed to Kyrgyztelecom, which the report calls de facto state-controlled and therefore ineligible, leaving US$2.01 million that counts. A planned regional cloud datacentre, the other main channel for private capital, was dropped after a feasibility study found it commercially unviable.

The report says Elcat was nationalised shortly after the connectivity work was completed, and that this and a shift to more centralised control of international connectivity "ran counter to the project's crowding-in intentions". It warns that the changes may weaken incentives for private investment, with possible effects on prices and service quality, and cites them in rating the risk to outcomes substantial.

Measures that do not agree

The report gives internet penetration of 65 per cent at completion, against a 57 per cent target, and cites a news report of 98 per cent by early 2026. World Bank-published data put the share of individuals using the internet at 92.0 per cent in 2024, and fixed broadband at 7.8 subscriptions per 100 people, up from 6.4 in 2023, or 560,290 subscriptions. At the Dushanbe forum the head of the Kyrgyz communications regulator, Altynbek Toktorbaev, cited construction of around 3,500 km of fibre and connectivity for about 99 per cent of settlements, with satellite pilots for mountain areas, according to the draft outcome report. These figures measure availability, use and subscriptions differently, and none of the documents reconciles them.

Corridor Signal did not find the new US$80 million operation in the Bank's public project listing on 17 October. The completion report says the Digital Code entered into force in February 2026 and that its effect depends on secondary legislation and enforcement.

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The committee's figures for the structure of information and communication technology (ICT) output, published in August, show telecommunications services generating 28.9 per cent of the sector's gross value added, behind computer programming and consultancy at 53.6 per cent.

The computer-use release is based on the committee's sample household surveys but does not report internet or smartphone use, does not break the figure down by region, age, sex or urban and rural residence, and gives no sample size. Its series shows the share barely moving between 2017 and 2019, at 49.1, 49.7 and 49.8 per cent, then rising to 52.5 per cent in 2020 and 58.2 per cent in 2021, before slower gains of 58.8, 59.2 and 60.4 per cent from 2022 to 2024.

Where ICT value is made

In January to June 2026, ICT services accounted for 2.9 per cent of gross domestic product, against 2.8 per cent in the first half of 2025 and 2.4 per cent in the first half of 2024, the committee said in a release dated 25 August. Gross value added in ICT services was UZS 30.3 trillion. Within it, computer programming, consultancy and related activities accounted for 53.6 per cent, telecommunications services 28.9 per cent, data processing, hosting and web portals 10.5 per cent, software 4.4 per cent and repair of computers and communication equipment 2.6 per cent.

On those shares, telecommunications services generated about UZS 8.8 trillion of value added in the half year and data processing and hosting about UZS 3.2 trillion, on Link Budget's arithmetic. The release does not give a growth rate for telecoms on its own, and does not say how the value added of mobile operators, fixed operators and internet providers is divided.

A release dated 12 October put the committee's broader turnover measure, communication and information services, at UZS 71.4 trillion in January to August, a figure that counts sales rather than value added and so is not comparable with the GDP share.

Hardware made at home

Large enterprises produced computers, electronic and optical products worth UZS 4 trillion in January to July 2026, 9.1 per cent more than a year earlier, a release dated 23 September showed. Tashkent city accounted for UZS 1.7 trillion and Tashkent region for UZS 1.4 trillion, together about 78 per cent of the total, on Link Budget's arithmetic. Kashkadarya produced UZS 315.4 billion, Namangan UZS 158 billion, Fergana UZS 155.9 billion and Navoi UZS 143.2 billion, Jizzakh UZS 60.5 billion and Syrdarya UZS 20.2 billion; five regions each produced less than UZS 15 billion. The smallest totals were in Khorezm, at UZS 2 billion, and Surkhandarya, at UZS 2.1 billion, the committee's regional table shows.

The release does not list products or manufacturers, so it does not show whether network equipment, handsets or consumer electronics drive the total, and it covers only large enterprises.

What the figures leave out

None of the three releases reports broadband subscriptions, mobile data traffic, network coverage or investment by operators, the measures that would show how the networks themselves are growing. Officials gave coverage figures elsewhere: at the International Telecommunication Union's regional forum in Dushanbe on 29 and 30 September, Deputy Minister of Digital Technologies Jamol Makhsudov said more than 99.5 per cent of settlements are covered by mobile internet and 98 per cent have access to fibre-optic lines, according to the ITU's draft outcome report.

The committee's figures for ICT's share of GDP in January to September are the next document to read.

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The notice shows the contract was awarded by direct selection, without a competitive tender, by the Project Implementation Center under the Executive Office of the President, and runs for 12 months from a notification of award dated 10 September.

The notice does not say how many schools the study will cover, which regions, or whether it will assess fibre, mobile or satellite links. It gives no reason for the direct selection. The World Bank's procurement record for the contract lists an estimated value of $742,000, so the signed price came in about 22 per cent below the estimate, on Backhaul's arithmetic.

What the project has to deliver

The study feeds a schools target already written into the project. The latest Implementation Status and Results Report, archived on 4 April 2026, sets a goal of 100 digitally enabled schools, "including connected and connected + equipped", by December 2030. It also targets 20,000 people making new use of broadband internet, of whom 10,000 women and 18,000 young people. Every one of those indicators stood at zero on 25 March 2026.

The report rated progress towards the development objective and implementation as moderately satisfactory, down from satisfactory, and said implementation was "progressing slowly". Project indicators "are expected to see only slight improvement through 2026 due to procurement delays", it said. The International Development Association grant had disbursed 9.31 per cent of its revised amount, and a trust fund grant, TF-C6744, 16.67 per cent, the report shows. The project was approved on 17 December 2024, became effective on 8 May 2025 and closes on 13 December 2030, its World Bank project page says.

Beyond schools, the report lists a data centre target of 2.5 MW of added capacity, 30 ministries and agencies co-locating equipment or migrating systems to it, and an approved national digital transformation strategy, all due by December 2030 and all at zero or "No" in March.

Two other awards

The project published two further contract awards in the following weeks, both in the skills component that the schools work sits in. A contract worth TJS 3,113,917.88 went to LLC Center for Artificial Intelligence Development, also by direct selection, to train up to 5,000 computer science teachers to deliver the mandatory "AI and Computer Science" school subject, a notice dated 19 September says. It is financed from the trust fund grant and runs for 12 months.

A third award, for courses in information and communications technology aimed at women, went to LLC Next View Consulting of Dushanbe for TJS 1,899,819.50 after a qualification-based selection, the notice of 7 October shows. The firm scored 90 on the technical evaluation and ranked first. The notification of award for that contract is dated 12 May 2026, nearly five months before the notice was published.

What the notices do not say

None of the three notices states a start date for work in schools or on networks, and none names an operator or infrastructure provider. The UNICEF study is a feasibility exercise: the documents published so far do not say how the project will procure the connections themselves, or whether Tajikistan's state operator or private carriers will supply them. The April report does not break down the 100-school target by connection type.

The next document to read is the project's next Implementation Status and Results Report, the first since the three awards, which should show whether any of the zero indicators has moved.

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Chairman Goga Gulordava presented the findings to a joint meeting of two parliamentary committees as part of the Commission's 2025 activity report. The finding comes from the second stage, in 2025, of what ComCom calls a holistic study on promoting competition in the telecommunications market. That stage looked at the market for physical communications infrastructure in two segments, access to ducts and access to poles. Preliminary results identified an operator with significant market power in the wholesale ducts market, the statement says, and the report concludes that additional regulation is needed. The statement does not name the operator.

Ducts and poles

The poles segment was judged competitive. ComCom said access to electricity and street-lighting poles is already regulated under Georgian law on sharing telecom and usable physical infrastructure. In the ducts market it listed high barriers to entry, weak competition, a strengthened position for the dominant infrastructure owner and the limited effectiveness of existing rules.

Experts consulted for the study recommended transparency and non-discrimination in access, standardised access procedures and stronger tools for monitoring access and regulating access fees. ComCom said the regulation the study envisages is meant to help smaller and new market players build their own offers, allow network operators to earn more from their capacity and widen consumer choice.

Business broadband and wholesale markets

The same stage examined corporate terms for business subscribers in the retail fixed internet market. It covered the most demanded services, the main factors in choosing a provider and the difficulties customers face in selecting one. Two further wholesale studies have been launched, on IP transit (global and local internet connectivity) and on dedicated backhaul channels connecting settlements. ComCom said in the statement that these markets are particularly important for small and medium fixed-network operators.

For 2026, ComCom plans to analyse the wholesale market for access to high-quality services over fixed networks, following the retail business findings. It will consult stakeholders on the markets under review before adopting decisions, calculate access tariffs for fixed and mobile networks as part of implementing first-stage decisions, and continue work with access seekers and network operators on the terms of access offers. The statement does not describe what the first stage covered or when it was completed.

The fixed market behind the study

The study applies to a fixed market that ComCom's sector statement of the same date sizes at 1.212 million fixed broadband subscribers at the end of 2025, 54,000 more than in 2024, with fixed internet in 2,583 of Georgia's 3,385 villages. A separate ComCom account of the state fibre programme says 18 internet service providers and three mobile operators were using the programme's Open Net platform as of 2025.

Several questions remain open in the material ComCom has published so far:

• The operator concerned is not named.
• The statement does not say how the 70 per cent figure was measured or whether it applies nationally or to particular areas.
• The statement publishes no data from the study, and it describes the findings as preliminary.
• The statement gives no timetable for a decision, although ComCom says it will consult stakeholders before adopting one.

ComCom said the study is intended to let smaller and new companies develop, and Gulordava presented the work as ongoing. The statement does not say which remedies are under consideration beyond the experts' recommendations on transparency, standard procedures and fee oversight, or whether access fees for ducts will be regulated alongside the access tariffs for fixed and mobile networks that ComCom plans to calculate in 2026.

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The project, called Tajikistan Rural Broadband, carries the status "In Exploratory, Pending Final Review" and an approval date of 16 December 2026.

What the loan would finance

The summary says the project aims to expand broadband coverage and access to digital services in underserved areas, while supporting wholesale open-access infrastructure that enables telecommunications operators to extend last-mile connectivity. The borrower is the Republic of Tajikistan, and the project would be implemented through the national telecommunications operator, which owns and operates the country's core telecommunications infrastructure, the document says. It does not name the operator.

The EBRD finance summary lists EUR 48,383,549.59 against a total project cost of EUR 48,438,944.91. The bank would therefore provide almost all of the funding, leaving a difference of about EUR 55,000 that Corridor Signal calculated from the two figures. The summary page does not state the loan's tenor or pricing, a construction timetable, the route length or the number of settlements to be connected.

The document gives the project an expected transition impact score of 78 and says it is expected to support improvements in the telecommunications sector, including aspects of the regulatory framework, through targeted interventions. On additionality, it says the bank provides long-term financing for digital infrastructure in underserved areas and supports open-access infrastructure and regulatory improvements aimed at strengthening the telecommunications market. It is categorised B under the bank's 2024 Environmental and Social Policy and rated medium-high risk, and the page says environmental and social documentation is not available for the project.

Tajikistan's connectivity gap

World Bank indicators for fixed broadband subscriptions and internet use, last updated on 8 October, show that fixed broadband is scarce in Tajikistan and internet use trails its Central Asian neighbours. Tajikistan had 0.98 fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people in 2023, the latest year available, up from 0.59 in 2022. In absolute terms that was 102,229 subscriptions, against 59,586 a year earlier. The share of the population using the internet was 55.8 per cent in 2024, up from 48.9 per cent in 2022.

• Fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people in 2024: Uzbekistan 34.7, Kazakhstan 15.3 and Kyrgyzstan 7.8, against 0.98 for Tajikistan in 2023.
• Internet users as a share of the population in 2024: Kazakhstan 93.4 per cent, Kyrgyzstan 92.0 per cent, Uzbekistan 89.5 per cent and Tajikistan 55.8 per cent.

The gap between the two measures indicates that most internet use in Tajikistan runs over mobile networks rather than fixed lines. That is Corridor Signal's reading of the data, not a World Bank finding.

Roadmap, memorandum and approval date

Asia-Plus reported on 30 September that the bank had not made a final decision on financing. It said Tajikistan and the EBRD agreed an investment cooperation roadmap for 2026 to 2030 in September that names rural broadband among key areas, alongside energy, transport, water supply and irrigation. It also reported that Tajikistan's Ministry of Finance, the Communications Service under the government and the EBRD signed a memorandum in June on modernising and expanding the national telecommunications network, with the parties planning to attract about $43 million. The project summary is denominated in euros, and neither source reconciles the two figures. Asia-Plus added that, according to the bank, it has carried out around 200 projects in Tajikistan since 1993, with total investments above €1 billion.

The summary lists 16 December as the approval date, and its status line says the project is pending final review.

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Log-in Georgia is co-financed by the Government of Georgia and the World Bank, ComCom said in a note of 12 October. The statement on 2025 results gives no funding amounts.

Completed and planned routes

The completed 575 km of backbone runs through Chiatura, Sachkhere, Terjola, Tkibuli, Chkhorotsku, Khobi, Senaki, part of Tsalenjikha and Zugdidi, according to the statement. The 1,050 km under construction covers Mestia, Zestafoni, Kharagauli, Sachkhere, Khashuri, Gori, Kareli, Kaspi, Dusheti, Mtskheta, Keda, Khelvachauri and Shuakhevi. Sachkhere appears in both lists, and the statement does not explain why.

New tenders were announced in 2025 for three further routes: Khulo to Akhaltsikhe to Borjomi, Tsalka to Akhalkalaki to Akhaltsikhe, and Tbilisi to Marneuli to Tsalka. The statement gives no lengths, values or award dates for them.

The 575 km and 1,050 km figures add up to 1,625 km. The cumulative total of 3,000 km is described as completed and ongoing works by the end of 2025, and the statement does not reconcile the two numbers, so earlier phases or other works may account for the difference.

Who uses the network

As of 2025 the Open Net platform had 18 internet service providers and three mobile operators on it, the statement says. It does not report how many households or businesses have been connected through the network, what wholesale prices providers pay or how many of the 420 settlements already have service.

The programme sits alongside a fixed market that ComCom's sector statement puts at 1.212 million fixed broadband subscribers at the end of 2025. The same statement says fixed internet reaches 2,583 of Georgia's 3,385 villages, which leaves 802 without it. The 420 settlements in the fibre programme and the 802 villages are counted on different bases, and the documents reviewed do not say how far they overlap.

Digital skills component

The fibre build is paired with a Digital Support Programme that trains residents in the target areas. In 2025 it covered 80 target villages and settlements in eight municipalities, with more than 300 seminars and 4,600 beneficiaries trained, according to the statement. Over recent years it has reached 300 villages and settlements in 20 municipalities, with nearly 800 seminars and more than 10,000 beneficiaries. ComCom said that since 2022 the programme has operated in 70 per cent of the geographic area covered by optical infrastructure.

Later notes show the programme continuing in 2026. On 24 June ComCom said it had concluded the programme in Sachkhere after 116 training sessions for 1,700 local beneficiaries, and that it had trained more than 14,000 people in over 300 villages and settlements in 20 municipalities. On 12 October it reported more than 50 sessions for over 1,000 residents of 17 villages in the municipality of Gori, and said the programme had by then reached more than 350 villages and settlements in 23 municipalities and over 16,000 beneficiaries.

Courses cover basic digital skills, safe use of the internet, artificial intelligence literacy and internet use for employment. Participation is free for residents aged 14 and over, according to the Sachkhere note. Participants in Gori included municipal staff, teachers, students, socially vulnerable people, internally displaced persons and small business owners. Gori is also among the municipalities where backbone construction was under way, according to the 22 September statement.

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The report does not describe the design: it gives no investment figure, no list of districts, no subsidy model and no timetable for a tender, and it does not say whether the government has adopted it. The project is implemented by IT Park and the Ministry of Digital Technologies, the report says. Neither has published the document.

A project mostly about skills and offices

The broadband work is a small part of a $50 million International Development Association credit approved on 27 November 2023 and effective since 26 July 2024. Its three components are digital inclusion and the enabling environment ($5 million), regional infrastructure and incentives for IT-enabled services, or ITES ($35 million), and promotion of Uzbekistan as a location ($10 million), according to the report. By its archive date, $6.10 million, or 12.20 per cent, had been disbursed. The credit closes on 31 January 2030.

The World Bank cut its rating for progress towards the development objective from satisfactory to moderately satisfactory and kept implementation at moderately satisfactory. Training and consultancy contracts are under way, the report says, but "progress under component 2 remains limited". The ITES incentive programme launched only in 2026 and "the expected uptake has yet to materialize despite the introduction of additional incentives". Design documents for new regional offices "are still awaiting approval", and construction "is expected to start in second part of 2027".

One of five planned regional ITES centres was operating in August 2026, the same as in March 2025. A mid-term review was held on 14 August 2026, against a plan of 20 July.

The numbers so far

The project counted 1,690 young people who had completed digital and soft skills training by August 2026, of whom 974 were women and 1,186 people with disabilities, against a 2029 target of 6,177. It recorded 1,002 beneficiaries employed by ITES companies, against a target of 9,000; of those, 139 were women. The number of ITES companies entering the market stood at 68 against a baseline of 133 and a target of 239, figures the report does not reconcile. Three of five planned international representative offices promoting the "Digital Uzbekistan" brand were open, unchanged from August 2025, and the national ITES strategy had not yet been submitted to the government. A separate indicator for legal and regulatory documents for the ITES industry moved to "Yes" in August.

The procurement record shows the larger contracts so far have gone to skills and strategy work, including a $3 million ITES strategy contract awarded in May 2026. A request for expressions of interest for technical supervision of construction in Bukhara and Syrdarya regions, estimated at $800,000, was published in March. The project's procurement plan, updated on 16 October, still lists works for an ITES building in Syrdarya region.

What the report does not say

The report does not explain how a rural broadband design fits a project whose objective is skills and jobs, or who would fund any resulting partnership. It names no operator that might bid, and no spectrum, backbone or tower assets the design would rely on. The next document to read is the project's next status report, which should show whether the government has acted on the design.

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Four counts, four meanings

The report gives several 5G figures that measure different things.

• 5G subscriptions, including machine-to-machine (M2M) lines: 44,487,035.
• 5G real users, which exclude M2M lines: 44,268,946. The difference of 218,089 is Corridor Signal's calculation of M2M lines on 5G.
• Active 5G subscribers: 26,102,884. BTK describes an active subscriber on the earlier 4.5G service as one whose device and SIM card are both compatible with the service, and its foreword gives the same reason for the 5G shortfall.
• 5G-compatible devices: 29,777,164. The report does not explain why this is 3.7 million above the active count, a gap Corridor Signal calculated.

By Corridor Signal's calculation, active subscribers equal 58.7 per cent of the 5G subscription count, leaving 18.4 million subscriptions that BTK does not count as active. Against BTK's total of 86,989,303 real mobile users, excluding M2M lines, the 5G real users are 50.9 per cent, the 40,451,151 users on 4.5G are 46.5 per cent and the 1,995,710 on 3G are 2.3 per cent, by the same calculation. BTK puts M2M subscriptions at about 15.2 million.

Mostly existing lines, recounted

The 5G count appears to consist largely of existing subscriptions recounted rather than new customers. BTK's table of 3G, 4.5G and 5G data shows 4.5G subscriptions, including M2M, at 92,611,786 at the end of March and 49,649,162 at the end of June, while 5G went from zero to 44,487,035. Together the two come to 94.1 million, which is 1.5 million more than the 4.5G figure in March, by Corridor Signal's calculation. BTK's footnote to the table says some data were updated because of operator systems. The passages on 5G in the report do not say how subscriptions are assigned to the new service.

Earlier counts came from ministerial statements. Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said on 12 June that about 21 million subscribers were on 5G on the first day and that the figure was close to 42 million, Aydınlık reported. Karar reported on 29 June that he said it had passed 43 million. The BTK report does not say whether those statements used the same definition as its own counts.

Who is on 5G, and how much data they use

Postpaid customers made up 78.9 per cent of TT Mobil's 5G subscribers, 90.7 per cent of Vodafone's and 79.6 per cent of Turkcell's, according to BTK's section on the mobile subscriber profile. Across all technologies, postpaid accounted for 83 per cent of mobile subscribers, up from 79.7 per cent a year earlier, the same section says.

Mobile data use was 5,578,135 terabytes in the quarter. That was 14.3 per cent more than in the first quarter and 39.9 per cent more than in the second quarter of 2025, by Corridor Signal's calculation from BTK's series. Subscribers on 4.5G and 5G generated 5,526,512 terabytes, or 99.1 per cent of the total. BTK puts average monthly use per mobile broadband subscriber at 23.3 gigabytes. Of 79,657,065 mobile broadband subscribers on 3G or above, 77,051,294 were on 4.5G or 5G, the report shows.

The report does not give the 5G count by operator. Its contents page lists annex charts of operator shares of 5G and active 5G subscribers on pages 98 and 99, but the published file ends at page 94. BTK's first-quarter report, which covers the period before 5G launched, carried no 5G count.

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The same statement says 5G became available to subscribers of all three mobile operators in 2025. It gives no coverage, speed or subscriber figures for 5G, and it does not publish results from the new monitoring system.

What the system covers

ComCom said it monitors mobile service quality in all regions and for all three operators. The Rohde & Schwarz system measures 5G service, VoLTE call quality and calls made through WhatsApp, and operators can also use it to monitor the quality of their own services, according to the statement. The Commission said it gives consumers more detailed quality information.

The statement does not say how often measurements are taken, which devices or routes are used, which indicators are tracked or when results will be published. Those details would determine whether the data can be used to compare operators.

Coverage obligations and the three auctions

Silknet won combined lot N1 in the third 5G auction, covering the 700 MHz and 3400 to 3800 MHz bands, for GEL 48,802,257, ComCom announced on 27 June 2025. It must pay 30 per cent of the fee before the licence is issued and the remaining 70 per cent within a year of issue. Under the licence it must extend 5G gradually to densely populated settlements, tourist areas, ports, airports, railway stations and main highways, and build to European Union technical norms for quality and security.

ComCom's announcement of the auction on 24 May 2025 set seven years after the grant of licences as the period for meeting the coverage obligations. It said the auction was called at Silknet's request. Combined lots could be taken with or without an obligation to give mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) wholesale access, and the MVNO option carried a 20 per cent discount on the initial fee. Silknet took the lot without that obligation.

Cellfie Mobile was the only bidder in the first auction, in 2023. It took 700 MHz and 3400 to 3600 MHz for GEL 2,657,445 after the 20 per cent discount, in return for giving an MVNO access to its infrastructure, ComCom said. Magticom was the only bidder in 2024, paying GEL 77,125,735 for 700 MHz, 800 MHz and 3410 to 3710 MHz on a 15-year licence, Georgia Today reported.

The 2025 announcement also records that the mandatory MVNO requirement of the 2023 auction was dropped. It says Magticom was found to have significant market power and was separately required to give MVNOs access to its network. The three fees reported above add up to about GEL 128.6 million, on the figures given, although they cover different bands and terms and Cellfie's figure is after the discount.

By subscribers, Magticom held 41 per cent of the mobile market at the end of 2025, Silknet 36 per cent and Cellfie Mobile 23 per cent, according to ComCom's sector statement. Silknet, the last of the three operators to win 5G spectrum, has seven years from the grant of its licence to meet its coverage obligations.

Next-generation talks

On 9 October ComCom published a note on a meeting between Gulordava and Zhang Xiugui, Huawei's president for the Central Asia region. The note says they discussed prospects for mobile network development, the use of radio spectrum in Georgia and spectrum planning for mobile networks, the capabilities of 5G-Advanced and the prospects for 6G. It adds that Huawei presented its vision for communications development and technological solutions for introducing next-generation mobile technologies.

The note names no products, purchases or timelines, and it records no decisions.

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Meeting the plan would require about 1,230 more villages to be connected by 31 December, more than three times the number reported for the year so far. The summary does not give a monthly breakdown, a list of villages or a total for 2025.

The figures

• Villages connected in 2026, as reported on 6 October: 370, against a plan of 1,600 for the year, or 23.1 per cent (government summary).
• Communication lines laid in 2026: 11,819 km (same summary).
• Villages in Kazakhstan: about 6,179, of which 42 per cent were covered by high-speed data transmission technologies in July 2025 (government release, 4 July 2025).
• Fibre programme target: internet access for 3,781 villages by the end of 2027, more than 160,000 km added to the network and coverage raised to 90 per cent (same release).
• Satellite: 328 more remote settlements to be connected by the end of 2025, with investment in this area above 38.6 billion tenge and OneWeb, Starlink, Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology and Amazon Kuiper named as partners (same release).
• Schools: 3,998 of 7,866 general education schools connected to fibre in 2024, or 51 per cent, up from 46 per cent (Kazakhtelecom 2024 annual report).

How the targets fit together

The 2026 comparison is direct: the plan of 1,600 villages and the 370 connected appear in the same document and refer to the same year, which is the basis of the 23 per cent figure. Lines laid are not a measure of completed connections. The summary does not say how much of the 11,819 km serves villages already connected, so the Data Desk does not divide one figure by the other.

The July 2025 figures do not reconcile on their face. Coverage of 42 per cent of about 6,179 villages implies about 2,600 villages with high-speed service; adding 3,781 would exceed the total. The release does not say how many of the 3,781 already had some form of high-speed access, or whether the 90 per cent refers to villages or to people. The Data Desk therefore treats 3,781 as the scope of the fibre programme rather than as a count of villages without service, and does not calculate cumulative progress against it, because no 2025 total appears in the documents reviewed.

The Times of Central Asia, in an article published this month that draws on an interview with Madiyev, reported that Kazakhstan aims to connect more than 90 per cent of villages by fibre within roughly a year and a half to two years, with satellite services covering the remainder. On mobile networks, the government expected in July 2025 that coverage would reach 99 per cent nationwide by 2027 (July 2025 release), and its 6 October summary plans coverage along 40,000 km of regional and national highways in 2027, with more than 500 antenna-mast structures (6 October summary).

Method

Figures are taken as published in two government releases, of 4 July 2025 and 6 October 2026, and in Kazakhtelecom's 2024 annual report, all linked above. Percentages and differences are Data Desk calculations: 370 divided by 1,600 gives 23.1 per cent, and 1,600 minus 370 gives 1,230. "This year" in the October summary is read as calendar 2026. The connection counts are the government's own and could not be checked against an independent list of villages.

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The 5G record, from target to build

Method: the first four rows come from two releases of the Government of Kazakhstan, the June 2024 statement in Russian, translated by Corridor Signal, and a July 2025 statement in English. The remaining rows come from Kcell's results releases filed on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange for the full year 2025 and the first half of 2026. Kcell figures are the operator's own and cover only its network.

What the deadline measured

The 2024 statement framed the target in terms of cities rather than population coverage. It described the next stage as extending 5G in the three largest cities and the regional centres. By that measure the deadline appears to have been met: in April 2026 the ministry said 5G base stations were working in all cities of national significance and 17 regional centres, with smaller single-industry towns to follow in 2026, the Astana Times reported, citing the state news agency Kazinform.

The same 2024 statement listed the obstacles the ministry wanted removed to speed the build: limits on base-station radio emissions that it described as 10 to 20 times stricter than in developed countries, restrictions on placing base stations on state buildings, and master plans for towns and cities that did not yet provide for telecom networks, according to the release.

Population coverage tells a slower story. On Kcell's figures, a little over half of Kazakhstan's population could reach its 5G network when the deadline passed, and just under two-thirds six months later. The gain of 10.75 percentage points in the first half of 2026, a Corridor Signal calculation from the two releases, came as Kcell added more than 650 base stations in the period, more than half of them 5G-capable, according to the first-half release.

The operator's counts also need care. At the end of 2025 Kcell reported 1,762 5G base stations, including 818 sites deployed under a network-sharing agreement, and a footprint of 2,586 locations, according to the full-year release. The first-half release gives a single figure, 3,034 base stations, without the split. The two are not necessarily on the same basis, and the releases do not name the sharing partner.

Who paid, and what comes next

Kcell spent KZT 102.8 billion on capital expenditure in 2025 and more than KZT 32 billion in the first half of 2026, its releases show. The full-year release says the company is replacing higher-cost debt with financing from development institutions, including a credit line from the Development Bank of Kazakhstan secured in 2025. The government expected mobile operators to invest more than KZT 450 billion in the sector by the end of 2027, according to the 2024 release, and in July 2025 the digital development minister put total investment in information and communication technology at about KZT 1.3 trillion for 2025 to 2030, according to a government statement.

The next dates are in 2027. The government's target is 99 per cent mobile coverage by 2027, including along 40,000 km of national and regional highways, according to the same July 2025 statement. The ministry plans at least 3,527 5G base stations by the end of 2027, the Astana Times reported in April. Kcell alone reported 3,034 at the end of June 2026. The government's summary of 6 October says more than 4,000 5G base stations have been installed in more than 20 cities, already above the 3,527 planned for the end of 2027, according to the government.

Demand is moving in the same direction. Devices that support 5G made up 34.6 per cent of those on Kcell's network at the end of 2025, according to the full-year release, and 5G-enabled devices accounted for 39.6 per cent of network traffic in the first half of 2026, according to the first-half release.

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