Central Asia Rural Digital Divide Deepens
Recent Developments
01In 2024, the ITU reported that 95% of urban residents in the CIS region were online compared with 85% in rural areas, and that 7% of the rural population had no possibility of accessing the Internet.
02The ITU also reported in 2024 that 5G coverage reached 18% of the urban population in the CIS region but remained at 0% in rural areas, underscoring the persistence of the rural coverage gap.
03GSMA’s regional analysis continued to show that nearly 50 million people across eight Central Asia and South Caucasus countries remained unconnected, with the largest usage gaps in 2022 in Georgia and Turkmenistan.
Interventions
- World Bank and related regional development efforts targeting digital connectivity, affordability, and broadband infrastructure in Central Asia, with emphasis on rural access and service quality.
- Regional and country-level mobile-network expansion and digital inclusion initiatives tracked by GSMA and ITU, including efforts to close usage gaps rather than only extend nominal coverage.
- Broadband and e-commerce diagnostic work in Central Asia, including World Bank-supported analysis identifying areas where service availability, speed, and affordability remain weakest.
What Works
- Improving affordability and digital skills, not just network coverage, because GSMA found that adoption has lagged rollout and the usage gap remains large even where mobile broadband is available.
- Expanding reliable rural backbone and last-mile infrastructure, including higher-capacity broadband and mobile networks, because the World Bank and ITU both identify weak rural access and lower rural coverage as key constraints.
- Targeting rural households with service-quality upgrades and practical access models, since recent research shows rural residents often remain limited to older networks or low-quality service even in connected areas.
How to Help
- Support organizations working on digital inclusion, rural broadband, and connectivity affordability in Central Asia.
- Back programs that improve digital skills, device access, and rural service quality for underserved communities.
- Advocate for public investment and regulatory reforms that lower broadband costs and expand rural coverage.
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Verified Organizations
Organizations Helping(5)
FAO’s Digital Villages Initiative works in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to bridge the rural digital divide by turning villages into digital hubs. Its method is participatory and step-by-step: it scans territories, identifies promising villages, assesses readiness, designs a local roadmap, implements interventions, and monitors progress. In practice, FAO pairs better internet access with digital and agri-entrepreneurship training, digital literacy support, and locally tailored interventions for rural communities.
EIB Global is helping fund satellite-based broadband expansion in rural Central Asia through a financing package with the European Commission and SES. The initiative is designed to bring broadband internet services to around 1,600 underserved villages across Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, focusing on remote areas where terrestrial networks are weak or absent.
The World Bank addresses the rural digital divide through infrastructure and service-delivery projects such as the D-CASA initiative in the Kyrgyz Republic. The project expands broadband access by laying fiber-optic cable to underserved areas, connecting public institutions, adding cross-border connections, and improving the affordability of broadband. The Bank also links connectivity investments to stronger digital government and broader private-sector participation in ICT markets.
UN ESCAP has worked on regional digital solutions for Central Asia, including support for digital access, improved Internet connectivity, and e-government. Its materials describe efforts to reduce the digital gap between cities and rural areas by improving high-speed internet access, mobile communications, and the broader policy environment for inclusive digital services.
