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Accessible Internet National Project: Kazakhstan residents to be provided with high-speed Internet access of at least 100 Mbit/s

Accessible Internet National Project: Kazakhstan residents to be provided with high-speed Internet access of at least 100 Mbit/s

The plans for Accessible Internet pilot national project, developed on the instructions of the Head of State, were considered at the Government session chaired by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Alikhan Smailov.

The Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry Bagdat Mussin reported that the main objective of the national project is to provide citizens and businesses with high-speed Internet access at a speed of at least 100 Mbit/s. So, it is planned to cover more than 3,000 villages through construction of 60,000 km of cable telecommunication infrastructure. It is planned to use a space communication system to provide small remote rural settlements with broadband access to the Internet.

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At the same time, work will be done to cover 17,000 km of national and major regional roads with mobile Internet. For this purpose, it is planned to install more than 480 antenna-mast structures. In parallel, a new generation of 5G mobile communications will be introduced in cities of national importance and in some regional centers. It is expected that by 2027 the coverage of each city of national importance and the capital with this type of communication will be 75%, and 60% of the regional centers.

A separate area of the national project is to provide schools with Internet access. At present, the connection speed has already been increased in 3,063 schools. By September 2023, the same work will be done in another 1,402 schools. Fibre-optic communication lines (FOCL) will be laid to 2,003 schools, where there are no technical possibilities to increase the speed.

Another goal of the national project is to establish Kazakhstan as a regional digital hub. For this purpose it is necessary to lay 380-400 km of FOCL under the Caspian Sea. At the same time a data center not lower than Tier-III will have to be created to store transit and international traffic. Implementation of the above projects will provide an alternative route for international data transit and attraction of at least 3 BigTech companies (Google, Amazon, Microsoft) to the country's market.

The Chairman of the Board of Kazakhtelecom JSC Kuanyshbek Yesekeyev and General Director of Kar-Tel LLP ("Beeline") Evgeniy Nastradin also made their reports at the meeting.

The Prime Minister noted that the national project is aimed at addressing multiple issues related to the quality and availability of the Internet in towns and villages.

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"Unfortunately, this layer of issues is not solved systematically and formally. Since the beginning of the year the government has received almost 5 thousand complaints from citizens on issues of communication and informatization. And a significant part of the questions is about the low speed of the Internet and its quality. In addition, there are many complaints about the absence or poor quality of mobile Internet in the settlements themselves, even in major cities. A lot of such complaints in Almaty and the capital city," Alikhan Smailov said.

According to him, it is incomprehensible why mobile Internet service is not included in the obligations of communication operators under the permits. In addition, there is no equipment that measures the quality and speed of the Internet.

"We have to solve these problems. People are no longer satisfied with just having the Internet. We have passed this stage. High-quality communications and high-speed Internet are needed. After all, the people of Kazakhstan pay in full for the tariffs, so their claims are absolutely justified," the Prime Minister stressed.

He added that over the past three years there has been a decline of investment in the industry by almost 60%, as it is easier for them to pay fines for violations than to invest in expensive infrastructure.

"This situation must be changed radically. This is what the proposed national project is aimed at. Its main goal is to provide people and businesses with high-speed Internet access of at least 100 Mbit/s. Fibre-optic communication lines should cover about 3,000 villages. And by 2027, 75% of cities of national importance and 60% of regional centers will be provided with 5G technology," Smailov said.

The increase of transit potential of networks with data transmission level up to 4-6 terabits/sec is also a priority task.

"On the instructions of the Head of State, Kazakhstan should become a digital hub with powerful data processing centers and cross-border fiber-optic backbones. In total about 560 billion tenge is planned to be allocated from the budget within 5 years for implementation of the National project," the Prime Minister said.

Head of the Government noted the need to strengthen monitoring of the quality of communication and Internet speed, taking into account the obligations of telecom operators, as well as to finalize the national project as soon as possible and submit it for approval to the Presidential Administration.

Source: Official Information Source of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan

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