Growing messenger traffic, premium packages of TV channels and development of communication systems — how Internet works during state of emergency in the country


Today in the state of emergency in the country, the Internet has become an essential tool. In this regard, recently people are increasingly asking questions about its quality on social networks. Read more about the current state of the Internet in Kazakhstan and the measures taken to ensure uninterrupted and high-quality communications network in the review by Primeminister.kz.

Ensuring the access of every Kazakhstani to high-speed Internet is one of the main tasks of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan. As noted by the Vice Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and the Aerospace Industry Daryn Tuyakov, in pursuance of this task, the ministry together with telecom operators is implementing several projects.

In accordance with the current legislation on communications, telecom operators, at their own expense, carry out the construction and development of communication systems. This work was started in 2018. In two years, a lot of work has been done. In general, the project plans to provide Internet to 1,250 villages, to date, 607 villages have been connected. In the future, this work will be continued, the remaining 643 villages will be connected to the Internet.

 

Internet development in quarantine

As Tuyakov noted, today leaders and specialists of the communications industry are doing everything possible to meet the country's needs during the emergency.

To date, the total volume of services in the communication market of the Republic of Kazakhstan has increased by 12.8% compared to last year. The direction of communication is actively developing.

Over the three months of this year, the largest share in the total volume of services fell on the Internet communications services — 36.3%. Compared with the corresponding period last year, growth was 13.5%. The main reasons for the growth in March are the introduction of the state of emergency in the country, as well as the quarantine regime in many regions of the country. The role of the Internet during the state of emergency has grown significantly.

According to Tuyakov, at present, cities and a part of rural settlements with a large number of residents receive broadband Internet access services using various technologies. Residents of villages with a small number are experiencing problems with the quality of the Internet connection. The country has 6,560 settlements, of which 118 cities and 6,443 villages.

Also today, all regional and district centers are provided with a fiber optic communication line. More than 50% of the population are connected to fiber optic infrastructure.

“In order to equalize the social opportunities of the regions and ensure coverage of high-speed Internet via FOCL from district to village, we have been implementing a PPP project since 2018. Within the framework of this project, we do not finance the construction of fiber optic cable, but buy ready-made services and thus we are currently moving away from the traditional construction of ICT infrastructure. Today, 50% of villages are already located, and this is 607 rural settlements connected to fiber optic links. The remaining 643 will be covered by FOCL by the end of 2020,” Tuyakov said.

 

Mobile Internet will be developed in villages

However, in today's world, people mostly use mobile devices. Currently, over 34 million devices are registered in Kazakhstan. More than 14.9 million active users of mobile subscriber devices are those who use smartphones and use the Internet.

The ministry together with regional akimats have signed a memorandum and a schedule on Feb. 13, 2020. In this schedule, the current work on the development of mobile Internet in rural areas is planned.

“I want to remind you that by the end of 2020, 928 villages with the population of over 250 thousand people will be covered by high-speed Internet technologies 3G and 4G,” the vice minister said.

It should be noted that Kazakhstan is one of the five countries in the world at low tariffs for Internet services with a connection speed of 100 mbit / s.

In order to support residents of rural settlements, fixed-line services (telephone and Internet) are subsidized. The tariff for telephone and Internet services for villages is lower and amounts to 596.59 tenge (without VAT) for the telephone, from 982.14 tenge (without VAT) for the Internet.

 

The impact of quarantine on internet quality

With the introduction of the state of emergency in the country and the need to comply with home quarantine, the demand of residents for the quality of the Internet both in cities and in rural areas has increased. As noted in the ministry, this is primarily due to the high current load on telecommunication networks. A similar situation is observed all over the world. During the period of self-isolation, user activity and the volume of Internet traffic in mobile and home networks are growing. This is mainly streaming television — about 50% visit Youtube, watch videos and social networks, and make online calls more often. According to the analytics of operators, only in April 2020 did the demand for video content significantly increase. For example, the performance of overseas Netflix service grew by 87%. At the same time, the growth in the traffic of Telegram and Skype messengers increased by 23% and 68%. This is a large amount of data with servers that are located outside the country, usually in the United States.

“Communication problems in one way or another are faced by all countries, including us. We are well aware that today our work is one of the most important components of the life activity of every resident of Kazakhstan. Now in quarantined conditions, communication services are as important as energy, water and heat supply services. Therefore, we monitor this situation around the clock and take all necessary measures to effectively respond to the challenge we are facing,” said Tuyakov.

 

Internet provider traffic increasing significantly

According to the Chair of the Board of Kazakhtelecom JSC Kuanyshbek Yessekeyev, over the past few weeks, traffic on external Internet channels in the Kazakhtelecom group of companies has grown by more than 20%, and traffic on local caching servers for top content is Google, Youtube, social networks and instant messengers, increased by more than 15% since the announcement of the state of emergency.

“The reasons for the sharp increase in traffic, I think, are understandable to everyone, but nevertheless I’ll voice it — it’s a transition to the remote work format of most Kazakhstanis, a significant increase in video content consumption, and a significantly increased time spent in the network of our customers,” said Yessekeyev.

In March alone, the subscriber base of Kazakhtelecom was replenished with 25 thousand households. The capacity of external channels is expanded by 360 Gigabits (from 1,200 Gbps to 1,560 Gbps) and, according to Kuanyshbek Yessekeyev, despite the significantly increased load on the network, the increase will continue.

Since the announcement of the state of emergency, Kazakhtelecom has conducted operational negotiations and subsequent work with providers to increase the capacity of external Internet channels. At the moment, these channels are expanded by almost 25%, which makes it possible not to download external Internet channels and improve the quality of the service provided. Currently, half of the Internet traffic is localized in Kazakhstan, which allows providing the same high quality of service delivery.

As Yessekeyev notes, Kazakhtelecom JSC switched to a preferential regime for the provision of telecommunication services. This means that during the quarantine period for late payment of subscribers, they will not be disconnected from telephone, Internet and pay television. All customers have unlimited access to Internet resources, including educational resources. For the quarantine period, all television subscribers are given access to a premium package of television channels at no additional charge. Thus, at the moment, all subscribers have the opportunity to watch up to 167 television channels.

Beeline Kazakhstan Chief Executive Officer Evgeniy Nastradin, in turn, notes that the Beeline network’s growth in mobile traffic consumption since the introduction of the emergency mode averaged 10%. The growth of fixed, i.e. wired, Internet traffic amounted to 30%.

“At the same time, the traffic distribution map has changed significantly. Our subscribers spend most of their time at home. Accordingly, where there is access to a fixed Internet, there is no growth in the load on the mobile network at all. Where there is no fixed connection, mainly the suburbs of Almaty and Nur-Sultan, as well as areas of private development in other regions, traffic at our base stations has increased. We saw from the load how people switched to remote work, began to spend more time at home,” said Nastradin.

For reference:

The working hours of the contact centers of Kazakhtelecom JSC will remain unchanged.

Online consultations in WhatsApp and Telegram instant messengers, as well as on the telecom.kz portal are available for users daily from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The options in user's personal account on telecom.kz have been expanded. Now through this channel you can apply for connecting services, changing the tariff plan, disabling services.

For legal entities, the ismet.kz portal provides online maintenance services — receiving electronic invoices, acts of work and reconciliations, details of telephone calls and Internet traffic, paying bills for communication services, deferred payment, temporary booking of services, and many others.

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