Country Readiness Assessment Report – Kyrgyzstan Cellular communication network Presently, mobile cellular communication is managed by two operators: “Katel and “Bitel”. The cellular communication system of “Katel” is based on the American AMPS standard in its digital version. The network has been operating for more than six years, and has about 7,000 clients (expert evaluation). Katel’s base equipment was installed by “Ericsson” and “Motorola”. Presently, the network covers Bishkek, Chui Oblast, Issyk-Kul Oblast, Osh, and Jalal-Abad. The estimated volume of investment is about US$ 5 million. Bitel’s cellular communication system is based on the European GSM standard. The network has been operating for more than three years, and has about 10,000 clients. Most of the equipment used is made by “Ericsson”, “Siemens” and “Huawei”. The GSM network covers Bishkek, Chui Oblast, northern part of Issyk-Kul Oblast, and Osh. The volume of investment is about US$ 6 million. With the appearance of a second operator in the cellular communications market, a rapid decrease of tariffs from US $ 0.25 to 0.5 per minute to US $ 0.25 to 0.30 occurred. Subsequently, with an increase in competition, the tariffs of both companies decreased even further down to US $ 0.07 to 0.15 per minute. However, in spite of these reductions, there has been no substantial growth in the market. The primary users of cellular communication are still businessmen, international organisations and sectors of the state elite. Penetration of the market by cellular communications is only 0.4%. The world average for this indicator is between 3 and 5%, and in European countries, such as Norway and Finland, it is 60%. The primary reason for the poor penetration level of cellular communication services is low income. Paging services Another segment of the communication market is paging. There are three operators working in this segment: “Areopag-Page”, “Smart-Page” and “Gelio-Page”. “Areopag-Page” provides services in Bishkek, Chui Oblast, Ussy-Kul Oblast, Osh and JalalAbad. Its clients number approximately 3,000. Russian paging technologies are used on the basis of Motorola’s transmitters. In the near future, the company is planning to transfer to the “Flex” American protocol. “Smart-Page” provides services in Bishkek, Issyk-Kul and Chui Oblasts. Its clients number approximately 2,000. “Gelio-Page” provides services in Bishkek to approximately 500 to 700 clients. All paging providers work on the basis of the outdated “Pocsaq” protocol, using Russian technologies. The major function of paging services includes transmission of text messages through their own operator centers. With increase of competition, tariffs have halved from US $ 20 to between US $ 9 and $ 11. Two companies (“Areopag-Page” and “Smart-Page”) have, for a long time, provided services through the Internet, omitting operator centers. Total investments made by the companies have 25