Milestones 2023

Leading telecommunication companies of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan Kazakhtelecom JSC and AzerTelecom JSC entered into the Agreement on the Terms of Cooperation within the project on  laying a fibre-optic communication  line (FOCL) on the Caspian Seabed. The Agreement is a fundamental document of strategic partnership and defines the main terms of cooperation between the two companies within the framework of the memorandum signed earlier.

Salem Social Media, a Kazakhstan media company for creation and promotion of video content, and Kazakhtelecom JSC, the largest telecom operator of Kazakhstan, signed a memorandum implying joint work on film production and its broadcasting on the TV+ platform.

Kazakhtelecom JSC organised a regular meeting with current and potential suppliers of goods and services to discuss the issues and problems in the field of procurement accumulated since the  last conference in October  last year. Kazakhtelecom holds such meetings on a regular basis, inviting businesses to reform and optimise procurement procedures. Thus, based on the results of  last year’s meetings, the telecom operator, in co-operation with suppliers, managed to resolve a whole range of issues related to the increase in prices for cable and wire products, purchase of wooden poles, furniture and other goods and services.

Following Astana and Almaty, Kazakhtelecom JSC scales GPON technology in other regions of the country. Kazakhtelecom JSC connected residents of more than 50 new residential complexes in Petropavlovsk to high-speed Internet via Gigabit Passive Optical Network.

Kazakhtelecom JSC continues the  large scale project on modernisation of its own infrastructure in single-industry towns. In 2023, Khromtau joined the  list of “optical” cities where Kazakhtelecom transferred the whole city from outdated copper ADSL technologies to modern fiber-optic  lines under a separate programme by the end of the year.

Kazakhtelecom JSC  launched the Telecom Data Factory online internship programme for 3–4-year students, undergraduates and graduates of technical specialties. During the internship, the programme participants perform practical tasks and work on projects in the field of Big Data, and get a chance to join the team of Kazakhtelecom’s IT professionals.

On the eve of the International Women’s Day, Lyudmila Atamuratova, the Chief Financial Director and a member of the Kazakhtelecom Management Board, took part in the opening ceremony of trading on KASE: Kazakhstan Stock Exchange Ring the Bell for Gender Equality. One of the main goals of the  large-scale event is to draw the attention of the world community to the prospects of gender inclusiveness development and support of gender equality in the context of sustainable development policy and ESG principles.

Kazakhtelecom JSC switched 6,000 residents of Turkestan region from copper to optical fibre. Since the beginning of the year, the Company has already completed 23% of the plan on migration from ADSL to GPON in Turkestan region, and active work on transferring the region’s residents to optical fibre continues. In general, the Company plans to completely move away from copper throughout the country, especially since we have already a successful pilot experience, when  last year the Company completely switched the city of Kurchatov to optical networks.

Kazakhtelecom JSC continues to build up its international presence and infrastructure abroad to improve the quality of services for customers and strengthen national and global network security. The day before, Kazakhtelecom and Microsoft completed the project on installation of direct peering between their systems in Frankfurt that improves access to Microsoft services for Kazakh customers and provide them with more stable operation of services in the country.

Kazakhtelecom Group in cooperation with the state within the framework of the Affordable Internet national project plans to provide modern telecommunication services and facilities to about 5 million villagers. The Company launched the project in April 2023 and plans to implement it in 2024–2028.

New exclusive series of the Kazakh video production studio Salem social media will replenish the Kazakhtelecom’s popular TV+ platform. Starting from this month, users of the service can already be among the first to appreciate the dramaturgy and director’s work of the exclusive pictures “Black Yard”, “MSB”, “Qarga” and “Sheshe”.

In Q1 2023, video surveillance cameras made it possible to identify over 680,000 violations of traffic rules, record more than 136,000 administrative violations and helped solve almost 3,000 criminal cases (according to statistics from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan). Video surveillance systems including Kazakhtelecom equipment integrated with the  law enforcement database record over 9,000 violations a day.

Kazakhtelecom JSC extended peering connection with Amazon’s autonomous system by organising a new direct physical connection with Amazon Web Services (AWS) network in Hong Kong. In general, the  largest telecom operator completed organisation of direct connections with the  largest Internet companies: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google in Europe and Asia and now exchanges traffic with them directly without transit systems.

Leading telecom operators of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan Kazakhtelecom JSC and AzerTelecom within the framework of the visit of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov to Baku signed the Shareholders’ Agreement on establishment of a joint venture for construction and operation of the Trans-Caspian fibre-optic communication  line (FOCL) along the Caspian Seabed.

Since 2022, Kazakhtelecom has been implementing the Tazartu project to replace outdated copper networks with modern optical fibre. For two years of the project implementation, the Company has switched over 113,000 customers by replacing outdated copper networks with modern fibre optics. By the end of 2023, we plan switching another 23,000 more customers.

The head of the Samruk-Kazyna Fund met with Kazakhtelecom top management. Kazakhtelecom’s Chairman of the Management Board Kuanyshbek Yessekeyev, as well as heads of mobile operators Kcell Askhat Uzbekov and Mobile Telecom-Service Sergey Konkov told Nurlan Zhakupov about interim results of implementation of the large-scale project on introduction of 5G in the country.

Kazakhtelecom JSC presented a new mobile application E-Kassa. The telecom operator’s new product will help businesses simplify the process of accounting for sales of goods and services, as well as save on the purchase of cash registers. Google Play Market users can already appreciate the advantages of the application.

Kazakhtelecom JSC, the country’s  largest telecom operator, and Eurasian Resources Group, one of the world’s  leading companies in the field of extraction and processing of natural resources, intend to create a joint investment fund. The parties have already signed the corresponding agreement, the fund will be registered on the site and under the  legislation of the Astana International Financial Centre. The fund will focus on supporting and developing projects in IT, media and fintech.

Kazakhtelecom JSC set a course for 100% transfer of  legal entities from offline to online sales and service format. To this end, the functionality of the business portal ismet.kz is being expanded and new digital services are being created.

Kazakhtelecom JSC put into operation 84 additional rack spaces in the existing modular data centre in Almaty. After the works on expansion of machine halls, the capacity to accommodate customers’ equipment increased several times. Now the total number of rack spaces of the data centre is 168.

Kazakhtelecom JSC studied the impact of its equipment on the environment. The Company, being the country’s  largest telecom operator, will include the assessment results of its equipment’s impact on Kazakhstan biodiversity,  land and water resources in its application for the implementation of ESG-principles, reflecting the efforts of various companies to reduce risks associated with climate change and social factors.

Kazakhtelecom JSC offers cooperation in connecting new users to the mobile application of online cash register E-Kassa with FDO. Starting from 1 September, anyone can become a consultant and help entrepreneurs to connect the fiscal data operator’s service from Kazakhtelecom.

Kazakhtelecom Group will install more than 700 5G base stations by the end of 2023. Kazakhtelecom Group continues to implement a  large-scale and most important project for the country – deployment of the fifth generation communication standard.

The most active network infrastructure updating takes place in the cities of Astana, Almaty and Shymkent. At the same time, residents of Turkestan, Kostanay, Karaganda and Semey already have access to the 5G network. Since the beginning of the year, the Company has connected 266 base stations to provide 5G coverage. We plan to connect about 516 more base stations by the end of this year.

Kazakhtelecom JSC presented two  largest and strategically important for the country and population projects at the annual IT forum Digital Bridge. In particular, they are the project to construct a fibre-optic line along the Caspian Seabed in cooperation with the Azerbaijan company AzerTelecom, and the project to deploy the fifth generation communication standard, 5G in Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan’s fans of cyber sports have gained access to  local servers of the mobile game PUBG MOBILE. Kazakhtelecom JSC deployed them on its infrastructure under agreements with the right holder of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile, Tencent Corporation.

At the meeting with potential suppliers and representatives of contracting organisations, Kazakhtelecom’s top managers spoke about one of the Company’s strategic objectives for 2024 – to reduce the Time to Market for its services. This will make it possible to quickly satisfy customer demand for telecommunications services and speed up the implementation of various projects.

Kazakhstan Stock Exchange at the forum Role of Exchanges in Transformation of Financial Markets held in Almaty awarded Kazakhtelecom with the title of Equity Market Leader. In addition, the Company’s CEO and CFO received individual awards for their contribution to the development of the domestic capital market.

S&P Global Ratings affirmed the credit rating of Kazakhtelecom JSC at BB+ with a Stable outlook, reflecting further organic revenue growth and moderate  level of the Company’s debt burden.

Fitch Ratings affirmed the credit rating of Kazakhtelecom JSC at BBB- with a Stable outlook, drawing special attention to the stable market positions of Kazakhtelecom Group of companies, as well as a significant margin of financial strength.

Kazakhtelecom JSC and Smart Cities, a member of BTS Digital’s AITU digital ecosystem, signed an agreement on co-operation in developing cloud technologies in Kazakhstan, as well as expanding the  line of cloud solutions and products. The Company has already introduced the first few joint cloud services on its business portal ismet.kz.

Kazakhtelecom actively continues implementation of the project on upgrading its Tazartu network infrastructure. Only this year, Kazakhtelecom switched almost 55,000 subscribers throughout the country to fibre-optic communication  lines. Thus, the Company recently completed  large-scale migration of customers from ADSL to GPON of Stepnogorsk residents and this city became the second “optical” city in the country after Kurchatov.

Mobile operators Tele2 and Kcell, part of Kazakhtelecom Group, continue to increase the pace of deployment of the fifth generation network in the country. Kcell has already installed 480 5G base stations in 17 cities of the country, and Tele2 – 754 ones in 18 cities. Hundreds of thousands of Kazakhstan people are using all telecommunication and digital services using the new communication technology. The speed and scale of implementation of the 5G project by Kazakhtelecom Group made Kazakhstan a  leader among the EAEU countries in the implementation of the fifth generation network.