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I did not move to Kyrgyzstan to enjoy the luxuries of a developed economy. Nonetheless, when the dominant cell phone company here, Bitel, cut off service late last month in the midst of an ownership dispute, I was as frustrated as the next guy.

Service was restored within a few hours, but the worst was yet to come. In an apparent attempt to retain customers that backfired famously, the company offered a week of free calls between Bitel subscribers after the new year.

Expats were overheard cursing the company and joking that it would have been better if they had doubled their prices instead, because the networks were so overloaded that it took dozens of redial attempts to make a call. For all practical purposes, communication was impossible. Some theorized that disgruntled former employees had sabotaged the system. Nobody was happy.

Kyrgyzstan experienced tremendous disarray in 2005. The president was overthrown in March. Three sitting parliament members were later shot dead, one in broad daylight in Bishkek. The White House was overrun a second time in June. A large coal mine was occupied by a populist outlaw. A proud mobster set up yurts across from the parliament, paralyzing the government and calling for the prime minister to be canned while hosting various powerful politicians.

But through it all, Bitel performed perfectly, bobbing along on the seas of uncertainty. With my phone, I had a link to the outside -- to my family, employers and press offices the world over. Without service, I felt deprived. The old rotary phone in my apartment is hopeless. It only works when the teenage girls across the hallway are not using the shared line, which is rare. And even then, I cannot call outside the city.

A Belgian shared my pain. "All these things over the past year didn't mean very much to me," she said, commiserating over dinner. "But when the phones died, it really hit me that this place is in trouble!"

Now that the promotional week of free calls is over, phone connections have improved. But a new problem has developed. The company, in all its capitalist wisdom, has stopped distributing the scratch cards necessary to refill my phone balance. So even if the connection is fine, I still cannot dial out.

I am thinking about biting the bullet and switching to a new provider, volunteering to call all my editors and neglected acquaintances and tell them I have a new number. A company people rave about is offering a promotion. But I still have not signed up. After so long without my phone, I kind of like the peace and quiet.

Ethan Wilensky-Lanford is a freelance journalist in Central Asia.