Telephones - main lines in use:
495,000 (2008)
Telephones - mobile cellular:
810,000 (2008)
Telephone system:
general assessment: telecommunications network remains underdeveloped and progress toward improvement is slow; strict government control and censorship inhibits liberalization and modernization
domestic:
Turkmentelekom, in cooperation with foreign partners, has installed high speed fiber-optic lines and has upgraded most of the country's telephone exchanges and switching centers with new digital technology; mobile telephone usage is expanding with Russia's Mobile Telesystems (MTS) the primary service provider
international:
country code - 993; linked by fiber-optic cable and microwave radio relay to other CIS republics and to other countries by leased connections to the Moscow international gateway switch; an exchange in Ashgabat switches international traffic through Turkey via Intelsat; satellite earth stations - 1 Orbita and 1 Intelsat (2008)
Radio broadcast stations:
AM 16, FM 8, shortwave 2 (1998)
Television broadcast stations:
4 (government-owned and programmed) (2004)
Internet country code:
.tm
Internet hosts:
755 (2009)
Internet users:
75,000 (2008)