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KYRGYZSTAN - Кыргызстан

  • The Civil Initiative on Internet Policy (CIIP) says that Kyrgyzstan's National Commission on Radio Frequencies has eliminated license requirements for WiFi devices which use an integral antenna. However, licenses are apparently still required for WiFi devices using a "remote" antenna, and "a certain type of permission" is still needed for all WiFi systems in the capital city of Bishkek. These rule changes are said to be "the result of more than a year of efforts and intensive work of Public foundation 'CIIP'..." A briefer report in ITday attributes these changes to Commission decision 41/4 (6 April 2006).
  • Previously, CIIP had told us that "Pursuant to the laws of the [Kyrgyz Republic] 'On electric and postal communications' [Number 31, 1998] and 'On licensing' [Number 12, 1997, with amendments] Wifi spectrum is subject to licensing... There is no difference between public and private use - in both cases it be subject to licensing. Moreover, this frequency spectrum is still not developed and applied in KG... There is not a separate law regulating spectrum management in KG. Only the above mentioned laws..." ---email message dated 23 September 2005.
  • "ОПЫТ КЫРГЫЗСКОЙ РЕСПУБЛИКИ ПО ВНЕДРЕНИЮ НОВЫХ ТЕХНОЛОГИЙ В ПОЛОСАХ ЧАСТОТ, ИСПОЛЬЗУЕМЫХ ОБОРУДОВАНИЕМ УСТАРЕВШИХ ТЕХНОЛОГИЙ," [The experience of the Kyrgyz Republic in introducing new technologies in the bands used by obsolete equipment] by B. N. Nurmatov, in Russian - presented at an ITU workshop in Yerevan, Armenia, 28-30 April 2008, on the "Convergence of radio services as a means of improving the efficiency of spectrum utilization." This 3-page note says 2404 - 2483.5 MHz has been allocated throughout the Kyrgyz Republic for wireless access systems operating under the Wi-Fi standard; a license is only needed if a "remote antenna" is used. Two operators in Bishkek use part of this band for MMDS, and a third operator has a nationwide-except-Bishkek Wi-Fi license. Presumably the third operator's Wi-Fi license enables it to use remote antennas outside the capital.
  • "Ассоциация операторов связи: у ГКЧР и ГАС нет правовой почвы распределять частоты" (Association of Communication Operators: GKChR and GAS do not have a legal basis to distribute frequencies) ITday, 19 August 2005 (in Russian): a planned auction of frequencies for rural broadband networks is challenged as illegal.
  • "Development of telecommunication in Kyrgyzstan in the years of independence" by Rustam Karaev and Andrey Gordeev, Vecherniy Bishkek, 16 August 2005, translated from Russian into English. This is an article about "spectrum politics" in Kyrgyzstan, triggered by the controversial auction mentioned in the previous item:
    " In Kyrgyzstan frequencies are national assets and are considered to be in the state's ownership... According to the current legislation, frequencies are covered by national security legislation and are outside the [State Communications Agency] SCA's competence, but cccording to Baiysh Nurmatov, the issues of frequency distribution, procedures and rules is within the competence of the State Radio Frequency Commission (SRFC). The SRFC is the main frequency distributor headed by the Secretary of the KR Security Council, Miroslav Niyazov. Its members are the ministers of defence and interior affairs, heads of the NSC and the State Protection Service..."
  • Kyrgyz Republic: Country Economic Memorandum - Enhancing the Prospects for Growth and Trade, World Bank Report No 29150-KG (24 January 2005): "The Kyrgyz Republic's schedule of [WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services] commitments binds its telecommunications market to be open, and the Law on Electric and Postal Communications appears to be pro-competitive and up-to-date... [However] the Kyrgyz Republic has yet to meet fully the non-binding GATS provisions on regulatory principles... In addressing these problems, one option could be moving to a class licensing (also known as general authorizations) system for telecommunications..."
  • "Report: ICT Sector Development in Five Central Asian Economies: A Policy Framework for Effective Investment Promotion and Facilitation," by John Ure, prepared for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific's International Conference on Strengthening Regional Cooperation for Managing Globalization (Moscow, 28-30 September 2005). Kyrgyzstan is profiled on pages 38-47, but as this report was released so soon after the March 2005 "people power" revolution, it does not have much to say about spectrum.
  • Kyrgyzstan Review - bimonthly survey in Russian of the top ICT news stories reported in the Kyrgyz media. [No updates since 29 March 2005]
  • Фонд Информационное будущее (Information Future Foundation). ФИб created 22 village Internet centers in 2004 and plans to start 150 more in 2005.
  • "Kyrgyzstan: e-revolution," by Claire Wilkinson, Transitions Online (via EurasiaNet), 21 July 2005.

Asia & Pacific - Regional Overview