This is the translation of Abdulgamid’s post from the Russian-language part of the blog

Finally wireless Internet has become available in Turkmenistan. So far it is provided only to companies, but MTS plans to make it available not only for them, but also for individuals already in May 2008.

Russian company MTS has started to provide internet services for its subscribers in Turkmenistan, Prime Tass reports quoting Dmitriy Shukov, head of the MTS Ashgabat office.

As the Head of MTS rep-office noted, 300 enterprises and organizations of Turkmenistan can access internet through GPRS/EDGE. MTS plans to offer internet services to individuals in May 2008. Additionally, MTS has also applied to a relevant authority for a license to introduce Wi-MAX in Turkmenistan.

According to Dmitriy Shukov, MTS was instructed by Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to ensure the internet access availability for every citizen of the country.

Moreover, not only every citizen will be provided with Internet access, but also every kindergarten.

The President, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, demanded to ensure that internet access in Turkmenistan, striving to get over with self-isolation, becomes readily available even to kids in kindergartens.

The national media report citing the President’s speech that “Schools and kindergartens having no access to internet and Citing the President’s speech the national media report that “schools and kindergartens not equipped with means of access to internet and multimedia technologies will not be set into operation.”

Quite an optimistic picture emerges in mind: every citizen of Turkmenistan can forget about slow and unsteady dial-up connection (which is, besides, still not provided to individuals in Turkmenistan) and start using high-speed wireless internet provided by MTS. It’s like a fairy tale. Well, in the end it all comes to one point – its cost. Supposing that 1 hour in internet café costs 60 000 Manat (from $3 to $4), then by no means every citizen of Turkmenistan will be able to pay for high-speed Internet. Well, let’s wait and see, but so far all we can do is to envy new kindergartens for their free-of-charge Internet access.