| April/May
2005 Updates Computers to
cost US$250 each and Internet access 5 Tugrik per minute
By
Lkhagvasuren Ariunaa in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, April 2005.
The Information and Communications Technology Agency (ICTA) of Mongolia is introducing
an initiative that will lower the cost of computers to US$250 each and Internet
access to 5 Tugrik (T) (US$1 = 1,120T) per minute in an effort to speed up the
development of the Internet in Mongolia.
There are many issues stagnating
the spread of Internet usage in Mongolia, however, the Government of Mongolia
has chosen to address two of them in launching the current initiative: the high
cost of computers and access to Internet. A non-branded Pentium 4 computer assembled
in Mongolia presently costs about US$500, a price that many people in the country
cannot afford.
Intel, the US chipmaker, has agreed to collaborate with
the Mongolians in manufacturing a computer that costs about half the current price
or US$250. The Industry is now waiting for the government to free these computers
from value added tax.
The high cost of Internet access is the other issue
to be addressed by this initiative. Users now pay 12T per minute for connecting
to the Internet and assuming that they access the Internet an average of three
times per week and about two to three hours each time, their total bill for access
per month ranges from about 17,300T to 26,000T. This is an affordable amount when
the average monthly salary of state officials is about 70,000T to 80,000T per
month. It is unrealistic to expect users to spend about 25-37 percent of their
monthly salaries on just Internet connection.
Mr. Saikanbileg, the director
of ICTA, expects that the cheaper cost of computers and Internet connection will
encourage businesses and individual users to go online and swell the number of
Internet subscribers in Mongolia. |
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