Pilot 4G network to be launched in Astana and Almaty by December 20

4G pilot project will be launched in Astana and Almaty by December 20. 4G is a communication network based on LongTermEvolution (LTE) technology, KazTAG reports citing chairman of KazakhTelecom Kuanyshbek Yessekeyev. “In Astana and Almaty we will launch it by December 20. We will launch LTE in the rest of the country within 3 years,” he said. KazakhTelecom planned to invest around $400 million into development of 4G network under LTE technology by 2015. 3GPP Long Term Evolution is a technology for mobile data transfer. 3GPP is an advanced standard that provides for high speed data transfer. With 3GPP LTE standard the speed reaches 173 Megabit per second for incoming data and 58 Megabit per second for outgoing data. KazakhTelecom is the leading communications operator of Kazakhstan. Its main shareholders are: Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund (51 percent), Bodam B.V. (16.87 percent) and Deran Services Limited (9.61 percent).