ITU/92-26 21 December 1992 Telecom statistics for the former Soviet Union now available The International Telecommunication Union(1) has issued the first series of telecommunication indicators covering all republics of the former Soviet Union (Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Baltic States and the Republic of Georgia). A joint collaboration of the ITU's Telecommunications Development Bureau (BDT) and the OECD(2) Centre for Co- operation with the European Economies in Transition (CCEET), Telecommunication Indicators of the Former Soviet Union highlights the current state of telecommunications in the region with over 30 tables and charts and includes regional totals and averages. This is supplemented by an in-depth review of the public telecommunications sector. The statistical information on public telecommunications includes: - main telephone lines with break-down on automatic, public pay phones and residential lines together with data on waiting lists - number of mobile phone subscribers and text communications (telex subscribers and Russian language teletypes) - national tariffs and call charges - number of staff and productivity expressed in number of main lines per employee - telecommunication financial and investment data including projections up to the year 2005 - comparisons with other regions for main lines per 100 inhabitants, staff per 1000 main lines, telecom revenues as a % of Gross Domestic Product and telecom investment as a % of Gross Fixed Capital Formation - a list of joint ventures An analysis of the data shows that the telecommunication sector has been characterized by under-investment over a long period resulting in an urgent need for network modernization to meet the requirements of the population and the emerging market economies. The supply of telecommunications services also varies greatly from one republic to another with an average main telephone lines per 100 inhabitants for the former Soviet Union of 14 (Baltic states average over 20, the Central Asian republics less than 10 and Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation close to the average). Highlights of the statistical compilations include: - an official waiting list of over 18 million lines (about half the number of existing subscribers, which probably underestimates the total demand) - automatic local networks but with low levels of digitization and old exchanges - an estimated investment of US$90 billion to attain a telephone density of 30 main lines per 100 inhabitants by the year 2005, requiring the installation of 60 million main lines - an average level of telecommunications development about the same as Central and Eastern Europe and similar to the situation in Western Europe in the 1970s Telecommunication Indicators of the Former Soviet Union also provides basic demographic, macro-economic indicators and names of the telecommunications ministries and main public telecom operators. The data is available both in hard copy and diskette formats with qSTARSq (Socioeconomic Time series Access and Retrieval System) - a user-friendly retrieval software for use with micro-computers. For more information and for permission to reproduce any part of the publication, please contact: Mr Michael Minges Information Services/Telecommunications Development Bureau International Telecommunication Union Place des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 20 Switzerland Telephone: +41 22 730 5519 Fax: +41 22 730 5484 An order form for BDT Statistical Products is enclosed. Footnotes: (1) The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was founded in 1865 and as such is the oldest inter- governmental organization. In 1947, it became a specialized agency of the United Nations and has a membership of 174 countries (December 1992). It is the international organization responsible for the regulation and planning of telecommunications worldwide, for the establishment of equipment and systems operating standards, for the coordination and dissemination of information required for the planning and operation of telecommunications services and within the United Nations system for the promotion of and contribution to the development of telecommunications and the related infrastructures. (2) OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.