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Kazakhstan: Government will support rural mobile expansion Print E-mail
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Under an amended communication law, the government of Kazakhstan intends to subsidize mobile expansion into rural areas, said Aska Bishigaev, representative of the state Agency for Informatization and Communication (AIC).

Today, Kazakhtelecom makes more than 90% of the contributions to the universal service fund, Bishigaev said. The company receives 100% of the fund’s disbursements because other operators have little rural presence. The situation will soon change as mobile operators start making payments to the fund. In return, they will receive subsidies to expand into rural areas.

The government wants mobile operators to be eligible to receive fund disbursements because their contributions to the fund are increasing -- today they account for 51%. Kazakhstan has three GSM operators, GSM Kazakhstan, KarTel and Mobile Telecom Service. Wireless operator Altel uses CDMA technology.

Kazakhstan adopted their existing Communication Law in 2004. On June 11, 2008 the parliament approved amendments to that law.

Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.