Turkmenistan has not joined any agreement with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders.

Turkmenistan has not appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments. In fact, Turkmenistan is not a member of the WTO.

Turkmenistan has a telecommunications authority: Agency for Transport and Communications (Turkmenaragatnashyk). However, the decision making process of this entity is not fully independent from the government given that it is governed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan.

Turkmenistan does not mandate functional or accounting separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market.

Art. 22.19 of Law No. 205-VI of Turkmenistan "On licensing of certain types of activities" provides that communications activities must be licensed. According to Art. 3 of Law No. 205-VI, foreign natural and legal persons (including their branches) and stateless persons are entitled to obtain a license under the same conditions and procedures as natural and legal persons of Turkmenistan. Art. 47.1 of Law No. 93-IV provides that telecommunications operators are obliged to carry out activities in the field of licensed communications. Despite the regime appearing to be non-discriminatory in the regulatory texts, it is reported that the government exercises tight control and significant management over the country's telecommunications sector. Currently, only one major mobile telecommunications company is operating in the country, namely Altyn Asyr, a subsidiary of the state-owned Türkmenaragatnaşyk. In addition, it is reported that only one foreign provider received a license in the past, namely Mobile Telesystems of Russia. However, the licence was not renewed in September 2017, resulting in its disconnection from the country's network.

It is reported that there is tight state control of the economy, and the government has only allowed significant foreign ownership and foreign direct investment in the energy sector. Therefore, foreign ownership in the telecom sector is restricted. In addition, Art. 16 of the Law about Communications states that government, postal and courier communications, technical means and networks of telecommunications used for defence, national security, protection of the State border and law and order, as well as technical means of national television and radio broadcasting and the enterprises ensuring their operation and development, belong exclusively to State ownership.

The government owns shares in certain telecom companies. In particular, it owns shares in: Turkmentelekom TC, which is a fully state-owned enterprise; Ashgabat City Telephone Network, with a 30% of participation of the Ministry of Communications of Turkmenistan and a 60% of Turkmentelekom; Altyn Asir CJSC (TMcell), which is fully owned by the Ministry of Communications of Turkmenistan.

There is no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Turkmenistan to deliver telecom services to end users, and it is not practiced in the mobile sector and in the fixed sector based on commercial agreements.

Art. 11 of Law No. 53-II provides that officials and employees of State authorities and administrative bodies, when performing control, supervisory and other functions, have the right, within the limits of their competence as defined by law, to receive information constituting a trade secret. The use of such information by State authorities and administrative bodies is subject to the procedure prescribed by law and may not be disclosed. In addition, information constituting a trade secret is made available to the courts and to bodies and persons conducting initial enquiries or pretrial investigations in accordance with the procedure established by law. Also, enterprises, organisations, institutions and individual entrepreneurs are obliged to report information related to an insured event that constitutes a commercial secret at the request of insurance organisations.

Law No. 53-II provides a framework for effective protection of trade secrets.

Turkmenistan has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

It is reported that Turkmenistan is still working on the government's use of unlicensed software. Although some government agencies have begun to use licensed software, Turkmenistan has yet to issue a presidential decree, law or regulation requiring the use of licensed software by government ministries and agencies.

Turkmenistan has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

Turkmenistan is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). However, the country does not consider itself bound by Art. 59 related to disputes. It should be noted that this treaty was signed in 1970, at a time when Turkmenistan was part of the Soviet Union. Therefore, in 1995, when Turkmenistan became independent, it issued the declaration of continued application and the date of entry into force was given as the date of independence, which is December 1991.

Turkmenistan has a copyright regime under the Law No. 257-IV. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Chapter 3 lists the exceptions, which include reproduction for personal use, use of works for informational, scientific, educational and other purposes, use of works by libraries, archives and educational institutions (reprographic reproduction), reproduction of computer programs and databases, and free short-term recording by broadcasting organizations.