OREANDA-NEWS. November 24, 2008. Uzbektelecom, the national telecommunications operator, is planning to expand the bandwidth of the external internet channel to 1 Gbps, the head of the company said.

Speaking to journalists in Tashkent, Shuhrat Sadykov said the current bandwidth is 515 Mbps. The company provides access to internet to all providers in the country through its commutation center.

Other plans of Uzbektelecom include expansion of the transport network and increasing the data transfer speed in the regions of the country. The mobile services, video telephony and other types of services will also be improved and expanded.

According to Sadykov, the company is implementing an investment project on modernization of its telecommunication networks, in which the Chinese Development Bank and the Huawei Technologies are participating.

Uzbektelecom includes 19 branches and has shares in eight joint ventures providing mobile and fixed communication, as well as data transfer and internet services.

The local telecommunication network of Uzbektelecom consists of more than 2,000 automated telephone stations with a capacity of more than 2 million numbers, 86% of which are digital. The digitization of the local telecommunication network has allowed to improve the quality of service and to introduce new services.