Kazakhstan’s mobile market used to have a low level of competition. Until May 2011, the country had two main participants: «Kazakhtelecom» state company and «Beeline». However, the situation has changed with Tele2, the Swedish mobile operator, stepping into the market. Oligopoly started falling apart and large companies announced a rate reduction one after another.
Over a few months of a new big mobile operator’s activity in Kazakhstan, the major participants of this market have announced tariff cuts by at least 20%. Until recently, mobile phone services in Kazakhstan were among the most expensive in the CIS. Mobile network operators offer mainly price plans with step-charging, specifying in their ads a low cost of following minutes after the second and third while the cost of the very first minute was considerably higher, because the average length of a mobile phone conversation in Kazakhstan equals 40 seconds and people usually did not resort to this attractive option. However, increased competition is forcing operators to give up high profits.

Kaspars Kukelis, Marketing Director, GSM Kazakhstan/Kcell
«The introduction of any tariff is a reaction to market competition. The operator can follow different promotion strategies and consider someone their competition or not and say whatever they want, but the reality is that we’re all in the same market.»

People in Kazakhstan spend an average from 10 to 15 US dollars per month on mobile services. Moreover, even new lower rates do not affect these figures.

Kaspars Kukelis, Marketing Director, GSM Kazakhstan/Kcell
«We are talking about 5 minutes of conversation per day. This is the length of people’s conversation, when every minute is charged. Once a person subscribes to discounts, consumption increases about 8-10 times. Mobile subscribers are willing to consume more.»

A reduction in roaming charges is yet another trend of the market. Mobile network operators of the CIS are in talks on this issue.