ADB study puts Türkiye and Kazakhstan among connectivity leaders, Tajikistan near last

Türkiye and Kazakhstan sit in the top group of 34 developing Asian markets on the GSMA Mobile Connectivity Index, while Tajikistan ranks second from bottom, according to a report published by the Asian Development Bank on 13 October. The study, carried out by GSMA Intelligence for the bank, also finds Uzbekistan made the largest gain on the index of any market between 2020 and 2025.

The report, Closing the Mobile Connectivity Gap in Developing Asia and the Pacific, covers 42 countries in five subregions. The corridor states fall in its Central and West Asia subregion, which also includes Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to the full text.

Where the corridor sits

In the report's chart of 2025 index scores, Türkiye and Kazakhstan are grouped as leaders with Viet Nam, China and Malaysia. Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Uzbekistan are in the advanced group, the Kyrgyz Republic is among the transitioners, and Tajikistan is in the emerging group, placed above only Afghanistan, the report shows. Turkmenistan does not appear in that chart.

On the change in scores from 2020 to 2025, Uzbekistan leads all markets shown, followed by Viet Nam and Pakistan, with Georgia fourth and Tajikistan fifth, according to the report's second chart. Kazakhstan's increase is among the smaller ones, which fits its higher starting point. The report does not publish the underlying scores as a table.

The study finds that Central and West Asia lags the regional average on each of the index's four enablers, with its lowest scores in affordability and consumer readiness. About 11 per cent of the subregion's population lives outside 4G coverage, against a regional figure of about 100 million people unconnected by 4G. In the subregion, 23 per cent of mobile internet subscribers still use a feature phone or 3G handset, compared with 7 per cent across developing Asia, according to the report.

The report projects that a 4G coverage gap of 7 per cent will remain in Central and West Asia in 2030, but it attributes most of that gap to Pakistan, where average monthly revenue per unique subscriber was less than USD 2 in 2025 against a regional average of more than USD 10. The corridor states' own shortfall is therefore smaller than the subregional figure suggests, although the report does not break it out by country.

What the bank wants regulators to do

Across developing Asia, mobile internet use rose from 62 per cent of the population in 2020 to 71 per cent in 2025, and 98 per cent of people live within reach of 4G, but 1.1 billion people do not use it, the study says. Reaching universal connectivity by 2030 would cost about USD 316 billion, of which USD 132 billion is expected from the private sector and consumers under current conditions, leaving a gap of about USD 184 billion. Closing the 4G gap could add about USD 230 billion to regional output by 2030, it estimates.

Its policy list is aimed largely at telecom regulators and finance ministries. It calls for assigning available spectrum at sustainable prices, with mid-band frequencies above 1 GHz described as critical for urban traffic, introducing simplified and service-neutral licensing, enabling infrastructure sharing and lower-cost energy, removing or reducing sector-specific taxes, reforming universal service funds and keeping quality-of-service rules proportionate, according to the report. It cites Viet Nam, which cut auction reserve prices by up to 90 per cent after a failed 2023 auction and then assigned three bands, as an example.

Affordability remains the binding constraint for poorer users. A 1 GB plan costs on average 1.7 per cent of monthly gross national income per capita, below the International Telecommunication Union's 2 per cent target, but 3.3 per cent for the poorest 40 per cent of the population, the study says.