The cost of services rendered by the Unified Electronic Communications Switching Center to the mobile phone operators has reportedly risen 36 percent.

Beginning on January 1, 2017, the cost of one minute of call rerouted through the Unified Electronic Communications Switching Center increased from 11 to 15 dirams, Ghafour Irkayev, Head of the Association of Mobile Phone Operators of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus in an interview.

According to him, the mobile phone operators will be forced to raise their tariffs and this will be a burden on subscribers.    

Recall, mobile phone operators in Tajikistan will have to increase the cost of outgoing calls to Russia by 20 percent, up to 1.20 somoni per minute on January 20, 2017.  The price reportedly increase comes by order of the antimonopoly service.  

Mobile phone companies have noted on their official websites that the additional cost has been incurred by the fact that calls are now rerouted through the Unified Electronic Communications Switching Center, a network gateway run by state-owned telecommunications company Tojiktelecom, which is in turn owned by the state communications agency.

The Tajik authorities established the Unified Electronic Communications Switching Center, which is known by its Russian abbreviation EKTs, last year and required that all Internet and mobile communications traffic be run through the single state-owned telecoms provider Tojiktelecom.  The Center centralizes all telephone and Internet communications with the aim of facilitating surveillance on the grounds of combatting terrorism and extremism.  It allows the government to have complete control over domestic communications without any safeguards.

The idea of creating a government-administered information gateway has been circulating since 2005.  The stated aim of the recurring initiative has been to prevent “illegal” communications that could undermine national security.

Meanwhile, EurasiaNet.org reports that according to Kazakhstan-based telecommunications news website Digital.Report, EKTs cost at least $50 million to install — a not inconsiderable amount for cash-strapped Tajikistan.