 Kazakhstan: Telecoms and technology background
FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT
Kazakhstan’s fixed-line telecommunications system is in poor shape, with around 17 subscribers per 100 inhabitants in 2004. Low incomes, high prices and a dispersed population are major barriers to the sector’s development.
However, the Kazakh government acknowledges that telecommunications is a strategic industry, and has a long-term plan of modernisation and liberalisation of the country’s networks.
The national operator, Kazakhtelecom, is implementing a programme to modernise the telecommunications system, and is deploying a fibre-optic network to improve international connectivity.
In addition, by the end of 2004 over 60% of exchanges had been digitised. Mobile services are booming; although mobile telephony penetration is still low at 18%, mobile subscriptions had reached 2.7m by the end of 2004 and 3m by May 2005.
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SOURCE: The Economist Intelligence Unit
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