Kazakhstan's "Samghau" to Pursue WiMAX Developments together with "Thales"

ASTANA. In Kazakhstan, the National Science and Technology Holding Company (Samghau) announced an agreement with Thales Group to jointly develop information and technology businesses.

In a press statement, Samghau said the companies “have agreed to cooperate and to develop strategic business relationships to achieve common interests in technology and commercial issues in the development of joint projects.”

The agreement is focussed on the areas of e-services for government, education and medicine. In addition, the companies will deploy solutions for broadband Internet, particularly with a focus on developing systems for WiMAX “at the local and national levels.”

Samghau is a company owned by the Republic of Kazakhstan, engaged in the development of numerous technologies. Thales Group is a global supplier of advanced information technology systems for aerospace, security and defence.

While Samghau did not release further details about its agreement with Thales, it dove-tails into the recently announced National Info-Kommunications Operator (NIKO) program, a USD 300 million effort that “will allow for the use and consolidation of existing [telecoms] infrastructure, the need to build new infrastructure, and the introduction and development of modern technologies for data transfer,” said a Samghau press release.

Last month, the chairman of the Agency for Information and Communications, Kuanyshbek Yessekeyev, underscored this initiative when he announced that broadband access is a key priority for Kazakhstan, and that technologies like WiMAX should help increase Internet penetration to over 20% of the population. According to the Agency, as of December 2007, Kazakhstan had 1.9 million Internet users, or 12.3% of the country, however the majority of these users suffer from low data rates.

For 2008, the Agency will demand that all Internet access providers in Kazakhstan must supply access to subscribers “at a rate not less than 256 Kbps.”
The telecommunications industry in Kazakhstan is in the process of liberalisation, and is now comprised of several operators, including: Kazakhtelecom (a subsidiary of Samghau), Transtelecom, KazTransCom, Arna, and Astel. Several companies have been awarded licenses for 3.5 GHz spectrum, including Kazakhtelecom, Nursat, Escape Wireless, Eventis Telecom and Meganet.

Kazakhtelecom has the most advanced infrastructure in Kazakhstan, and sources say it is planning to complete the deployment of its WiMAX network this year, which was partly financed by a USD 110 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In 2007 the company contracted with Alcatel-Lucent (a strategic partner and shareholder of Thales) to “deploy a Next Generation Network (NGN)…providing a full range of state-of-the-art advanced services based on IP technologies,” Alcatel-Lucent said in a press release.
A spokesman for Kazakhtelecom told WiMAX Day that it is presently building a “wireless broadcast access network on WiMAX technology for the cities Astana and Aktobe.”
In addition to local service providers, the Russian company Summa Telecom began operations in Kazakhstan last year, and in December 2007 acquired licenses for 2.5 GHz spectrum, according to a report in ComNews.

The Agency has said that additional licenses for 2.5 GHz spectrum may be auctioned in the future, but for the moment, licenses will be issued only on a “case-by-case” basis. An investigation of spectrum usage is on-going, and an Agency spokesman said that spectrum in Kazakhstan may be consolidated later this year, in an effort to ensure “alignment with ITU standards.”

Source: WiMAX Day