Kazakhstan climbs up the post-Soviet IT heap

In the annual Global Information Technology Report of the World Economic Forum, Kazakhstan has outshone its Central Asian neighbors – and Russia – to rank 43 of 144 countries, EurasiaNet.org reports. Kyrgyzstan, on the other hand, ranks at the bottom of all post-Soviet nations, at 118.     Read More »

Latvia whizzes in as Wi-Fi wonderland

Estonians often boast that free wireless Internet access is available throughout their country — even in remote forests and along deserted beaches. And now neighboring Latvia will be able to tout the same thing. Read More »

Bridging the digital divide (one Central Asian language at a time)

The localization of Skype into the Kyrgyz language in 2011 has been the first step to opening the world’s most popular messenger to the people who do not – surprise, surprise – speak Russian or English. Read More »

Georgia places high for net freedom, but some problems remain

Georgia’s Internet is generally free from government censorship, the newly published Transparency International Georgia’s report says. Last year, there was not a single case reported of websites blockages; nor were any bloggers or other online activists questioned arrested for their online activities, as it often happens in the neighboring countries. Read More »

In Belarus, gadgets gadgets everywhere nor any freedom to tweet

Perhaps you saw the funny quote in my news feed on Facebook that read: “This country looks like a post-apocalyptic world. Everyone has got gadgets, phones, and tablets – and around you see broken roads and loads of waste”. Read More »

Azerbaijan puts first satellite into orbit

Azerbaijan successfully launched its first telecommunications satellite into orbit on 7 February.

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Facebook stonewalls Yandex’s social search app

Yandex’s social search app has been shut down, for now.  Read More »

Russia hopes to get tough on cyber attacks

The Russian government has announced plans to beef up the state’s cyber security.  Although specifics of the plan have yet to be laid out, the Kremlin has said it’s first step will be to consolidate authority for fighting the problem under the nation’s internal security agency. Read More »

Third time a charm for Tajik Facebook block?

As Tajikistan’s elections approach this fall, authorities in the Central Asian country have blocked Facebook for the third time in recent months.  The blockage, something that seems to be becoming increasingly common in the country, also seems to extend this time to Radio Free Europe’s Tajik service. Read More »

New evidence emerges in TeliaSonera bribery case

Swedish prosecutors have filed new documents in an investigation into claims that Scandinavian mobile operator TeliaSonera paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to secure an operating license in Uzbekistan, according to Radio Free Europe. Read More »

Unfazed by controversy, TeliaSonera boosts its share of Kazakh mobile market

Swedish mobile network operator TeliaSonera has taken another big bite into Kazakhstan’s telecommunications sector, spending $170 million on 4G technology for KCell, the country’s largest mobile provider, Total Telecom reports. Read More »

Critics question neutrality of Kazakh Wikipedia

Ties between the Kazakhstani government and WikiBilim, the NGO founded to promote the expansion of the Kazakh-language version of Wikipedia, have prompted critics of the online encyclopedia to accuse it of providing the Kazakh regime with an opportunity to use the website as a propaganda machine. Read More »

Tajikistan cuts access to Facebook, again

Authorities in Tajikistan have blocked access to Facebook for the second time this year, saying citizens are too tired of the “mud and slander” emanating from the site, according to Reuters. The blockade is one of several measures seen as aimed at dampening public dissent as the country looks ahead to a presidential election in 2013. Read More »

Kyrgyzstan MP seeks ban on “SMS divorces”

Turushnbai Bakir-Uulu, a member of the Kyrgyz Parliament, has called for the country’s grand mufti to ban “SMS divorce,” Radio Free Europe reports. In the Sunni Muslim tradition, a man can say “talaq” to his wife one to three times and divorce her. The debate is now centered on whether or not sending “talaq” via SMS is valid. Read More »