The city of Astana is currently staging an international conference devoted to the issues of the development and application of new information technologies. According to experts, Kazakhstan is to see the introduction of the 3G mobile telecommunication standard in the cities of Almaty and Astana as part of the first phase. The whole country will be covered with the new standard in the near future while a complete switch to digital television will be performed before 2015.
Kazakhstan has been actively working on the introduction of digital television since last year. This year, the country is to start developing the frequency and territory plan. Acceding to the head of the agency for information and communication, Kuanyshbek Yesekeyev, it is necessary to define which broadcast standard is to be used in Kazakhstan in order to work such a document out. A few bodies in charge, such as the Ministry for Culture and Information, the Agency for Information and Communication, and the National Information Holding Arna Media, are now working on the switch to digital television in Kazakhstan.

Yerlan Baizhanov, CEO, JSC Arna Media National Information Holding
«The provision of miscellaneous broadcast content is the main task for the government, the Ministry for Cultur, and Information, and our holding company. It is also a topical issue for Russia. This is why, some solid resources such as finance, personnel and intellectual ones should be allocated in the next years for such a strategic direction so we can get a bigger amount of television channels.»

The introduction of the 4G telecommunication standard is now under consideration. The cost of text messages and phone calls will remain unchanged while the price of video conferences will see an increase.