Maximum Internet rates halved in Kazakhstan

Maximum Internet rates have been lowered by 50 percent in Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the press-service of Kazakhstan Minister of Communications and Information. “Kazakhstan Ministry of Communications and Information inspected the prices of dominating network operators, which resulted in a decrease of KazakhTelecom and TransTelecom maximum charges for initial Internet access (for network operators) by rougly 2 times,” the press-service's message says. KazTransCom and Nursat will further decrease their rates by 38 percent starting from August 1, 2011. “We hope that this will help the secondary providers lower their rates for the final users,” the press-service cited Yergazy Omarov, vice-chairman of the Commission for Communications and Informatization of the Ministry of Communications and Information. The Ministry also said that starting from June 1 Sher-K decreased Internet access rates by 20 percent at the territory of Zhanaozen town of Mangistau oblast. Currently the Ministry is checking KazakhTelecom's prices for Internet access for final users. As part of the program called Roadmap of development of broadband Internet access services that was developed by Kazakhstan Ministry of Communications and Information and approved in May, 100 percent coverage of Kazakhstan cities with high-quality Internet is scheduled to be achieved by 2015. The program involves steps to decrease rates for broadband Internet access by at least 30 percent by 2015. By Maksim Popov