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Another very good article by Alexander Vassiliyev discusses the ICT sector in Kazakhstan, its achievements and problems. I think for anyone interested in KZ ICT market this is by far most insightful summary and is worth reading. That’s why I will not attempt to summarise it, but give some interesting quotes: 'Having 'defeated' regular phones in spring 2005, cellular has 60% coverage and about 9 million subscribers.' ( with population of 15 million) 'As far as communication tariffs are concerned, their general reduction should be pointed out. The prices of regular telephone service and Internet are decreasing as well.' 'The discussion of liberalization of key provider in the Kazakh telecommunications market was closed.' '...90% of the Internet traffic (in Kazakhstan) accesses Russian web sites.' '…telecommunications market in Kazakhstan is in full swing. The fast pace of development and large volumes of investment indicate its stability and attractiveness, while planned corporate restructuring with international placement proves its maturity. The only branch falling behind is Internet...' Source: Alexander Vassilyev, Editor in Chief, Profit.kz, Kazakhstan International Business Magazine №2, 2007. Link to article: http://www.investkz.com/en/journals/52/407.html

The article by Aleksandr Vasiliyev in 'Kazakhstanika' provides an interesting and insightful overview of the Internet sector in Kazakhstan. The author gives reasons to low levels of ADSL v.s. dial-up connection use in Kazakhstan. He also discusses the problems regarding computer use in educational system, access and use of equipment and Internet, as well as and involvement of Kazakhtelecom in these matters. Vasiliyev points out the growing popularity of websites in the following areas: commerce, politics, and information medium. The author concludes providing statistics for the telecommunications sector that indicate Internet services sector growing slowly in Kazakhstan. He suggests improving these indicators by providing more opportunities for access to computers and Internet for public and advancing content of Kazakh websites to answer the demand. Source:Kazakhstanika. Link to article: http://www.investkz.com/en/projects/64.html

On November 13, due to a virus attack computer network of Department of Internal Affairs of Almaty has failed. As a result, there was a failure in the work of the divisions and services of the Department of Internal Affairs of the city, – said the press service of the Department of Internal Affairs. The work on registration of the people driving motor transport by proxy, registration of references of citizen’s vehicles, issuing of driver's licenses and transport checkup partially or completely halted. After two days, the incident was eliminated and experts ensure functioning of the equipment and network environment in the previous mode. Source: Kazakhstan Today, 11/15/2007 Experts suppose that the incident was caused by an organizational and management problem, and say that overall security level of computer network in Kazakhstan state agencies is high. General opinion expresses overall improvements in use of computer technologies in government offices, adequate staff training and information security enforcement. Source: CNews.ru. Link to article in Russian: http://www.cnews.ru/news/top/index.shtml?2007/11/15/275215

Central Election Commision of Kygyrztan (CEC) launches section about political parties on its web site. It will provide the information about the political parties, participating in the Parliament elections on December 16, 2007. It will help the voters and interested public to learn more about the political parties and candidates, said CEC press service. Source: AKIPress 11/13/07

Nordic telecoms operator TeliaSonera will buy $150 million worth of equipment from Nokia Siemens Networks to expand services in Uzbekistan. The new equipment will help to expand Coscom's network and launch GPRS and EDGE data transmission technology in the Central Asian state in 2008. With this development, Coscom will cover all of Uzbekistan. The deal is a complete turnkey which includes, in addition to the network infrastructure system, also Delivery and Care Services as well as Consulting and Systems Integration. TeliaSonera controls the major stakes of Coscom - Uzbekistan's third-largest GSM operator. Coscom services 10 percent of Uzbekistan's 4.57 million mobile subscribers. The company is leader in serving Uzbekistan corporate segment, provides a well-established distribution network in main cities. Its main competitors, Russian cell phone operators Mobile TeleSystems and Vimpelcom control 50.1 and 35.6 percent of the country's telecom market respectively. Source: Reuters. 11/09/2007 Link to article: http://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUSL0971565620071109

Uzbekistan is ranked 1st in Central Asia on the number of blocked 'undesirable' websites, followed by Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and lastly Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan is the freest country in this region with regard to the use of Internet resources, trainers of Central Asian conference on new mass media said. Source: AKIpress news agency, 11/02/2007 Comment: Blogger from Neweurasia.net lists the following results of the conference regarding further developments of blogging in the region: 1. Central Asia and Caucasus Blog Camp - a meeting of bloggers to discuss the ideas, problems and proposals for further development of blogging in the region – is planned to be held in end of July- August 2008. 2. Opening of a resource for ranking of central Asian blogs. 3. Development of ‘Facebook’ type of website. 4. Development of podcasting/videocasting technologies. 5. Encouragement of blogging in the region. Link to source: http://ru.kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net/?p=296

This 3-day conference was organized by the nonprofit organization, Transitions Online, headquartered in Prague. About 30 journalists and bloggers from the Central Asian countries took part in this conference. The conference discussed Internet development in the country as well as the obstacles hindering its progress. Among the latter were mentioned the DOC- attacks on several newspaper and information websites, which happened in Kyrgyzstan parallel to significant political events. The participants also examined new developments in Internet sphere in Central Asian states such as 'blogging' and 'blogosphere'. TOL director for new mass media Eugeniy Morozov said noted that out of the Russian speaking bloggers throughout the web 64 percent are women, and 36 percent - men. Also general Russian speaking blogger is a woman 21 years old, a university student. There are very few blogs in Kyrgyz language. It was mentioned that the questions of legal accountability of journalists publishing in Internet and bloggers still remains a pressing problem. Source: Gazeta.kg Link to article in Russian: http://www.gazeta.kg/news/2007-11-03/801

South Korea's biggest fixed-line carrier - Korea Telecom and Japanese Sumitomo Corp expand into Central Asia by acquiring together 85 percent of two firms East Telecom and Super iMax; 15 percent will belong to ‘Uzbektelecom’. The companies plan to offer high-speed internet services based on WiMax technologies (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) in 12 Uzbek cities from next year. East Telecom and Super iMax will aim to achieve combined annual sales of 61 million dollars in 2012, according to Sumitomo. Links to sources: http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=15934 ; http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=80766 Cnews.ru considers Korea-Japanese investment reasonable despite of the possible risks in the local investment market. It refers to following factors: telecommunication market with population of 26 mln. has high growth potential; government of Uzbekistan strongly supports ICT development, which plays a big role in the local business market. And finally, timing is a factor, as the recent crisis in foreign relations with Western countries is evident. East telecom owns a number of infrastructure facilities in Uzbekistan, provides telecommunication and Internet services and has license for further construction of telecom infrastructure in the country. Link to article in Russian: http://telecom.cnews.ru/news/top/index.shtml?2007/10/31/272801