Samruk-Kazyna got acquainted with the results of activities of Kazakhtelecom at the meeting of the Public Council of the Fund. The largest Internet provider and operator of the country reported on the results of its activities for 2022 at the meeting of the Public Council of Samruk-Kazyna JSC. In addition to financial and economic indicators, representatives of Kazakhtelecom told about implemented and planned projects, measures taken to provide the population with telecommunication services, to reduce digital inequality between residents of cities and rural areas.

To date, the subscriber base of the parent company and its subsidiaries for broadband access services is more than 1.9 million subscribers, member mobile operators of the Kazakhtelecom Group - Kcell JSC and MT-S LLP serve 14.5 million subscribers, in addition, the company has 931 thousand subscribers in the paid television segment.

Kazakhtelecom JSC also provides communications and broadband access to more than 7 thousand schools across the country, almost 6 thousand hospitals and about 17 thousand state institutions. As an operator of fiscal data, the company serves more than 560 thousand business entities, has more than 300 thousand active cash registers. In general, the company’s infrastructure includes more than 87,000 km of optical networks, over 14,000 base stations, 27 data processing centers, 40,000 city surveillance cameras.

“One of the priorities of the country level is to reduce the digital inequality between the city and the countryside, and our company is actively involved in its solution. Over the past few years, a number of measures have been taken in this direction: for example, the company has built more than 14.5 thousand optical lines in the villages of the republic, implements the radio bridge, FWA, GPON projects, and installs actively 5G base stations. At the same time, we have proposed a separate portfolio of projects in the currently formed National Project “Accessible Internet”. All this, in the end, will help to achieve the goal of reducing digital inequality, and every citizen of Kazakhstan, regardless of where he lives, and how far his home is from the regional or district center, will have access to all modern telecommunication and digital services”, - Kuanyshbek Yesekeyev, the CEO of Kazakhtelecom JSC said.

Special attention was paid to the financial performance of the company. Lyudmila Atamuratova, the Chief Financial Officer of Kazakhtelecom JSC, shared with the members of the Public Council the main financial and economic achievements of the Group of Companies for 2022. In particular, according to the published consolidated financial statements for 2022, the Group’s revenue increased by 7% and amounted to KZT 634 billion against KZT 594 billion in 2021, net profit exceeded KZT 128 billion, increasing by more than 32% over the year. At the same time, revenue growth was achieved in both the fixed and mobile service segments.

“We managed to achieve such results thanks to efforts aimed not only at increasing revenue from core activities, improving operational indicators, but also at optimizing costs and improving efficiency in other areas of activity. For example, compared to 2021, general and administrative expenses in the company were reduced by 10%, financial expenses decreased by almost 13%, while revenues increased almost 3 times. Last year, we invested KZT121.5 billion in the development of the country’s telecom infrastructure, which is 20% more than in 2021. I would like to note that the share of investments of our Group accounts for about 70% of the total investment in fixed assets in the direction of “Information and Communication” in the country”, - Lyudmila Atamuratova, the Chief Financial Officer of Kazakhtelecom JSC, said.

In general, the Kazakhtelecom Group of Companies intends to invest about KZT370 billion in the development of its infrastructure to provide modern telecom services to Kazakhstanis in the next few years.

Special attention was paid to the work on providing rural settlements with the Internet. For 4 months of this year, the telecom operator has connected more than 1,500 households to the Internet in 10 villages of the republic using the radio bridge technology. Kazakhtelecom plans to provide telecom services to more than 10 thousand villagers in 160 rural settlements by installing new “radio bridges”. In addition, another 50 thousand new subscribers across the country will be connected to high-speed Internet and high-quality communications via LTE wireless technology.

According to the Head of Kazakhtelecom JSC, in December 2022, a consortium of operators represented by MT-S LLP and Kcell JSC won the auction of frequencies for the introduction of 5G. According to the terms, the companies have committed to installing more than 7 thousand 5G base stations across the country by 2027. At the same time, 390 base stations in Astana, Almaty and Shymkent will be put into operation in 2023. In the first half this year, the Group of Companies plans to invest about KZT160 billion in a project to introduce a fifth-generation communication standard.

The CEO of Kazakhtelecom also said that last year the company signed an agreement with AzerTelecom on joint implementation of a project for the construction of a fiber-optic communication line along the bottom of the Caspian Sea on the Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan route. The main route of the trans-Caspian canal will run from Aktau to Azerbaijan's Siazan and will be more than 340 km, a reserve line with a length of about 330 km will be laid from the Kazakh port of Kuryk to the Buzovna point near Baku.

Summing up the meeting, the Chairman of the Public Council Bolat Zhamishev noted that the telecom operator can be not only a strong market player, but also the best company in the country in the field of corporate governance: “The company operates in the high-tech industry and is guided by the best world standards, as our country strives to be competitive in terms of the use of Internet technologies and technological the plan. And under these conditions, you can become the best company in practice in terms of corporate governance. To do this, it is necessary to ensure transparency of processes, regularly show reports and plans, take care of employees and fulfill all the obligations assumed to provide residents of cities and villages with high-quality services”, - Bolat Zhamishev stressed.

Based on the results of the meeting, recommendations will be sent to the telecom operator and control over their implementation will be provided.

For information: The Public Council of Samruk-Kazyna is an advisory and supervisory body that represents the interests of civil society in the Fund and promotes consideration of public opinion when making decisions in the companies of the Fund Group. Also, the activities of the Public Council are aimed at promoting greater accountability to society and transparency of the activities of Samruk-Kazyna and its portfolio companies.