By 2023, the entire territory of Uzbekistan will be covered by the 4G network, Uzbek media reported, citing First Deputy Minister for the Development of Information Technologies and Communications Olimjon Umarov.
“We plan to fully cover all the country's populated areas with fourth-generation mobile communications by 2023,” Umarov said at the reporting conference of Uzbektelecom, without specifying whether he meant any particular operator or the efforts of all players in the market.
According to Umarov, over 2,000 kilometers of fiber-optic communication lines were put into operation this year, over 4,000 fourth-generation mobile communication base stations were installed.
The official named the construction of large data centers in Bukhara and Fergana regions among the new tasks of the ministry.
“We plan to develop broadband access networks in the coming years and to increase number of internet access ports by 1.5 million, as well as to lay over 120,000 kilometers of fiber-optic communication lines,” he said.
In a recent study “Mobile Economy: Russia and the CIS 2018”, the GSMA Association noted that only 60 percent of the population of Uzbekistan is covered by mobile communications.