Cutting the Cost of Internet Use

Members of Kazakstan’s parliament have voiced anger at the cost of internet access, saying exorbitant telecoms prices are holding the country back economically. Industry-watchers say the monopoly hold that Kazakhtelecom – also the state’s internet service provider – exercises over the telecoms network contributes to keeping prices high, but warn that demonopolisation will not automatically improve things.



A number of members of parliament wrote to Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov last week to voice discontent with the quality and affordability of communications and internet services available to the public. They noted Kazakhtelecom's monopoly on the major networks connecting the country with the outside world, and accused it of maximising profits by raising its charges. An hour of daytime internet access costs about two US dollars in Kazakstan, four times what it would cost in Kyrgyzstan and two or three times the equivalent charge in Russia.



The members of parliamentarians concluded that lack of competition in the industry plus the poor availability of telecommunications services were making Kazakstan less competitive and successful than it could be.



Commentators interviewed by NBCentralAsia agree that Kazakhtelecom’s grip on the main networks keeps prices rising.



Mikhail Tunin of the Information Initiative group argues that making the industry more competitive would help it grow rapidly, since the many small telecoms businesses are much more agile at introducing new technologies than Kazakhtelecom is, with its cumbersome structure.



However, removing the removing the monopoly will not in itself make the internet industry develop faster. Other measures will be needed such internet traffic exchanges to allow service providers to share data, rather than having to access other sites in Kazakstan via international connections – a problem which currently contributes to the high prices.



Alexander Lyakhov, who edits an online “encyclopedia” of the Kazak internet called www.lyakhov.kz, says demonopolising the network is a must, but the real question is the time-frame in which it happens. “It isn’t the prices that are holding back internet development,” he explained. “Even if internet access was to become payment-free, you wouldn’t see it flourishing.”



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)