Uzbekistan will seek to connect a new external Internet channel, the chief of the Department for the Development of Telecommunications Infrastructure of the Ministry of Digital Technologies, Muradzhan Yuldashev told the Uzbekistan 24 TV channel.

According to him, the President of Uzbekistan at the Central Asia-China Summit separately emphasized the importance of building a fiber-optic communication line along with transport and power corridors between.

He underscored that the initiative would result in the creation of an additional Internet connection line.

“This line will help reserve international telecommunications lines and provide the public with high-quality, fast Internet. Uzbekistan will provide itself with another fiber-optic communication line with the global information space,” he emphasized.

Yuldashev also announced two ongoing major projects to expand the telecommunications transport network within the framework of the Smart City, Smart Logistics and Safe City initiatives.

“The president’s initiatives became the foundation for launching these projects,” he underscored.

In January 2018, Uzbekistan announced its intention to connect new external Internet channels to increase speeds fourfold and reduce prices for network access. At that time, Uzbekistan was dependent on the northern Internet channel passing through Kazakhstan and Russia, but gradually began to diversify sources.

“The President set the goal of creating an additional alternative channel. Now we are working on the issue [of organizing it] through the southern direction - Turkmenistan and Iran, Kyrgyzstan and China,” said Olimjon Umarov, former Deputy Minister for the Development of Information Technologies and Communications.

From January 1, 2025, providers in Uzbekistan were to receive direct access to the international Internet channel, but Uzbektelecom’s monopoly on the external channel still remains.

In March, the European Union, the European satellite communications provider SES (Satellite Communication Service Provider) and the European Investment Bank signed agreements in Tashkent on the satellite Internet program for Central Asia (TEI Digital Connectivity).

The European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jozef Sikela, underscored at the time that the project offered Uzbekistan "real digital autonomy" thanks to the proposal to host a regional satellite gateway on its territory.

"Of course, building a gateway requires costs that are not included in our project, but it provides tangible benefits of full autonomy, especially in crisis situations, that is, Uzbekistan will not depend on digital communications through neighboring countries," the European Commissioner said. In addition, he underscored, if Uzbekistan hosts a satellite gateway, it will be able to become a hub for the other two countries in the project - Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (Kazakhstan already has its own infrastructure, Turkmenistan is not participating in the project).

A month later, the EU announced the allocation of an investment package of 12 billion euros for Central Asia, including for satellite Internet.

According to the Speedtest Global Index, Uzbekistan ranks 72nd (53.33 Mbps) among 104 countries between Iraq and Costa Rica in terms of mobile internet speed. Uzbekistan ranks 76th out of 155 in terms of wired internet speed (83.61 Mbps).