Kazakhstan to liberalize telecommunications

The Times of Central Asia reports that Kazakhistani prime minister Daniyal Akhmetov has won the battle to deregulate Kazahktelecom JSC, the telecommunications monopoly whom the minister criticized in the middle of May. At that time, Akhmetov criticized Kazakhtelecom for obstructing alternative telecom operators in the drive to liberalization of the industry, and ordered that measures to break up the monopoly be drawn up within three weeks.

The deadline has passed, tentative plans have been produced, and the government has announced de-monopolization by the end of August 2006. Statistics in the Times article are many and revealing. Unbelievable as it may seem, Kazakhstan currently boasts some of the highest rates for internet connections in the world. Despite a per capita income less than one-fifth that of the United States, Kazakhstanis can expect to pay double what Americans do. And prices in the Asian nation are 150 percent higher than Germany’s, 200 percent higher than Russia’s, and 300 percent higher than China’s.

Additionally, dialing out is also unfairly rated. International calls are 400 percent higher than in the United States, almost 500 higher than in Turkey, and more than 500 percent higher than in China. Akhmetov blamed both of these wacky maladjusted tariffs on the monopoly. From 2004 to the first quarter of this year, some “852 telecom operators have found it necessary to work in this sector, but there are only 36 operators connected [to Kazakhtelecom lines],” Akhmetov stated. The level of digitalization in the Kazakhstan telecom network is currently just under 75 percent, with telephone density a mere 17.7 per 100 residents.

Land line numbers number approximately 2.5 million and, as is the cause in most nations developing their telecommunications, mobile phones far outnumber the land lines, with some 5.8 million mobile customers, or almost forty percent of the country’s 15.2 million-plus denizens. Indeed, The Times of Asia reported that mobile communications are “currently developing most dynamically.” Revenue for first quarter 2006 showed increases against last year of 72.1 percent in mobile phones, over sixty percent in data transfer services, 54.9 percent for internet access services and almost fifty percent for telecom channel leasing. Akhmetov said the government will probably break up Kazakhtelecom on the basis of “functional indication,” with the state government taking the main networks.