Kazakhstan cellular operators will join efforts to launch 4G

Kazakhstan cellular operators will join forces to launch 4G service, Tengrinews.kz reports citing one of operators' representative as saying at the briefing of the 3rd annual forum IT/Telecom-2011 on June 9. “Consolidated experience of all the operators will be very important for further development of 4G networks. It will allow us to provide high-quality services to the population,” said Director of the Regional Development Directorate Yevgeniy Pepelyayev. He also said “there shouldn't be any mistakes made with LTE. This is a technology of a completely new level, where accuracy and high speeds are important and where mistakes are simply unforgivable. In provisision of this level of services highest possible quality is just matter-of-course.” Ericsson talked about creation of LTE networks. Head of the representative office of this Swedish company said that a pilot area is being created by Altel company, a branch of KazakhTelecom. “We are finalizing the last frequency approvals these days; these will let us create the networks. There is a preliminary agreement on creation of the networks in two cities, Almaty and Astana. These are pilot network,” said Sergei Dik and added that further plans may be discussed only after implementation of these projects. By Maksim Popov