According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the tariffs for cable sewage for the last two years have remained unchanged and are provided exclusively to legal entities.

Shcheglova reported that telephone and internet in rural areas (starting from 2013) are provided with reduced prime costs: telephone communication is 596 tenge (while the prime cost is 1,125 tenge), internet in rural areas is 982 tenge and 1,964 tenge per month depending on the tariff plan (at the same time the prime cost is 2,932 tenge). Thus, operators providing universal services for tariffs in rural areas are compensated at the expense of budget funds. In 2018, 8.7 billion tenge was allocated to subsidize these services.

“According to the latest data of the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum, Kazakhstan occupies a high position in the tariff availability of communication services. In particular, Kazakhstan takes the 29th place from 140 countries on tariffs for cellular communication services, and 20th place on fixed broadband access services,” said Shcheglova.

In order to fulfill the order to reduce prices for communication services, the ministry held a meeting with all major telecom operators: Kazakhtelecom JSC, Transtelecom JSC, Kaztranscom JSC, Kcell JSC, Kar-Tel LLP, Mobile Telecom Service.

“Following the meeting, telecom operators suggested reducing tariffs for communication services by developing affordable ‘social’ tariff plans. The ministry instructed to submit proposals on the structure, amount of services and prices of new tariff plans by the end of November 2018. After receiving information from operators on social tariff plans, work will be carried out to highlight them in the media,” the vice minister summarized.