Telephones - main lines in use:
398,100 (2005)
Telephones - mobile cellular:
216,900 (2006)
Telephone system:
general assessment: poorly developed domestic: Turkmentelekom, in cooperation with foreign investors, is planning to upgrade the country's telephone exchanges and install a new digital switching system; mobile-cellular usage remains limited international: country code - 993; linked by cable and microwave radio relay to other CIS republics and to other countries by leased connections to the Moscow international gateway switch; a new telephone link from Ashgabat to Iran has been established; a new exchange in Ashgabat switches international traffic through Turkey via Intelsat; satellite earth stations - 1 Orbita and 1 Intelsat (2006)
Radio broadcast stations:
AM 16, FM 8, shortwave 2 (1998)
Radios:
1.225 million (1997)