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ASTANA, May 18 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan plans to abolish monopolies on its telecommunications market in August to encourage healthy competition and sectoral development, the country's prime minister said Thursday.
State-controlled Kazakhtelecom owns all the main telecommunications networks in the country and is also a communications operator.
"In August, we will adopt a final decision to de-monopolize the telecommunications market," Danial Akhmetov said. "We must first of all form a competitive market and defend the interests of the people of Kazakhstan."
Akhmetov said 852 telecom operators already held operating licenses, but only 36 of them were allowed to connect to Kazakhtelecom's networks.
"Kazakhtelecom, as the owner of the main networks, sets up obstacles for other businessmen and ignores Kazakhstan's legislation on competition," Akhmetov said.
He also said that, although the company's earnings hit $275 million last year, its tariffs remained very high. Moreover, Kazakhtelecom holds 49% stakes in three of the country's four mobile network operators.
In a bid to put an end to the market monopoly, an ad hoc government commission has proposed dividing the company into a main network operator and several local telecom operators.
"This is the most pragmatic option, and will create an independent telecom networks operator interested in the accession [to the network] of all local operators," said Askar Zhumagaliyev, head of Kazakhstan's information and communications agency.
"This will in turn reduce tariffs on the Internet, international and inter-city communications," he said.
Akhmetov has told the government to hold a tender within three months to pick an international consulting company to evaluate Kazakhstelecom's assets and analyze the proposed model for ending its monopoly status.
