Computing & Internet Diffusion

 

Overview

Its Internet infrastructure is far from perfect, but nevertheless Mongolia has improved its communications capability dramatically in just two years. So much so that it has attracted the attention of other developing countries facing similar problems.

Mongolia is a sparsely populated country located in Central Asia and occupies a vast territory. The country has an under-developed infrastructure. Mongolia is ranking in the 116th place in terms of the human development index by the UN human development report. Population literacy rate is 96.8%. All the key factors show the importance of penetration and use of ICT in all sectors of Mongolia.



Internet Service Providers

Based on the reports from the ICT institutions there are 7 ISPs, 1 Internet Exchange Point, 50000 group users of the Internet, 10000 dedicated Internet subscribers and over 40 Internet service points(public centers and café). Total bandwidth of satellite link is 10 mbps download.

At present the ICT sector is most growing sector with more than 70 private companies (over 7000 employees), working in Internet service, software and hardware development, online information services and consultancy.

Mongolia has 3100 ICT professionals and about 2000 students are studying ICT related higher education institutions.

There are total of 11 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Mongolia. The top five ISPs are:3

    1. Datacom Co., Ltd. (since 1995) - Datacom Co., Ltd, a data communications systems company, was the first to introduce Internet and its services to Mongolia in 1995. Datacom provides data communications services such as domestic PC-mail service, VSAT X.25, international PC-fax services, DirectPC service, WWW, and Internet E-mail service. Datacom Co., Ltd. has VSAT Internet connection to the United States with a bandwidth of 512 Kbps. They are the major ISP in Mongolia and they have more than 2,000 subscribers, which does not include the users at the corporate level. Most universities and research institutes, government organizations, agencies, banks, companies, international organizations in Ulaanbaatar and other main cities are using a LAN connected to the Internet. Datacom provide VSAT Internet connection to USA with a bandwidth of 512 kbps. Dial-up users can have an access at 33.6 kbps speed. Corporate users have 64 to 115 kbps access.

    2. CSMS (since 1998) - The Computer science and management school of the Technical University of Mongolia has connected ten universities with 400 PC's. They have about 100 dial-up users and are connecting 33 schools via dial-up and three schools via radio modem. The CSMS leases 115 kbps radio line and 400 kbps DirecPC satellite line from Datacom.

    3. Bodicomputer (since January 1999) - They have about 200 users and their bandwidth is 374 kbps. The Bodicomputer provides high speed Galactic satellite Internet (GSI). They lease telecommunication lines of the MTC (Telecom).

    4. Micom (since March 1999) - The Micom is a subsidiary of the MTC (Telecom) and have about 300 users at present with bandwidth of 374 Kpbs. An advantage of them is that dial-up users pay local tariff for the Internet connectivity in provinces.

    5. Mobinet - An Internet provider formed by the Mobicom Corporation.

As of 1999, there were two Internet-Café's opened by Bodicomputer and Datacom in Ulaanbaatar. As of 2002, there are total of 20,000 Internet users and 30,000 PCs in use.



Internet Development in Mongolia

Year

1998

1999

2000

2001

Internet Subscribers

3,400

6,000

8,000

10,000

ISP

3

5

6

7

Hosts

50

60

65

70

Bandwidth

1.28M

2.4M

8M

10M
Sources: Information Infrastructure of Mongolia



IT Development Indicator for Mongolia (per 1000 people)

Country

Daily Newspaper

Radios

Televsion Sets

Cable Subscribers

Personal Computers

Internet Users

ISP Charge

Telephone Usage

Secure Servers

Mongolia

30

50

72

16.5

14.6

40

52

0.17

1
Sources: World Bank - Information Age 5.1


Internet Diffusion 14

D. Ganbold, General Director of Interactive, local software company, states "The Mongolian private sector has achieved good progress in building ICT infrastructure." Today 7 Internet service providers and 2 mobile service providers operate in Mongolia. One in ten Mongolians use a mobile phone, and there are now over 50, 000 Internet users in Mongolia. The mobile service providers, with Korean and Japanese investment, have delivered fiber optic cable loops within Ulaanbaatar City, as well as many rural areas and smaller cities within the country. Around 60 software development companies produce applications for e-commerce and banking, as well as producing content and applications software in both Mongolian and other languages.

Mongolia has strength in human resources, basic infrastructure, and supportive government policies. With a positive business environment, the next phase for ICT development is involvement in the global economy, and creating further opportunities for Mongolian companies. "That is the mission of the second stage of ICT development in the country," D. Enkhbat says.

John Savageau, American CEO of MagicNet, the first Mongolian Internet Service Provider, believes Mongolians can do any job needed to compete in the global economy. As long as Mongolian software developers and network providers can produce a world class product, it makes no difference whether the product is produced by an American, Indian, European, or Mongolian. The important discriminator is quality the, and a desire to do the best.

At the same time some local experts criticize Mongolia's situation. D. Enkhbat explains the "The Mongolian market is not aggressive towards using knowledge and information. Business habits of the local people are different. Today in Mongolia there are more people with cars than with computers." He says, "It is important for Mongolian people to understand that ICT is tool that delivers knowledge and enables new efficiencies when employed. This means additional knowledge needs to be added into all business processes to be more competitive, and introducing more value added products and services."

J. Savageau says "Thought leadership is missing in leading Mongolian business people." "In many cases business leaders have no experience or knowledge of how to use the tools and resources to manage their business processes better." Savageau sees tremendous potential and opportunity for local enterprises to improve the efficiency of their business, and to extend current markets using communications technology as an enabling tool.

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