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Kazakhstan has announced that it intends to achieve 100% broadband
population coverage by 2013 (International Telecommunication Union,
2011). In 2006, Kazakstan adopted a program of reducing information
and digital inequality/divide where ICT is considered to be a strategic
tool for economic growth that provides businesses with a competitive
advantage by increasing the efficiency of operations. The program aimed
to reach 20% computer Internet literacy by 2009 as well as to increase
the social and economic importance of ICTs (Electronic government of
the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2007). According to recent data, the usage
of ICT increased by 26%. PC usage increased by 38.5% and Internet
usage was raised by 49%. Interestingly, mobile phone diffusion is very
high—100 to 130% depending on the statistic agency. BuddeCom gives
21 million subscribers for the mobile phone services (2012).
TABLE 6
PC penetration and Internet adoption by different agencies.
Agency
PC, Internet Adoption (%
population)
Mobile Phone Adoption
(% population)
GISWatch
15
-
CIA The World Factbook
30
100
Internet World Stats
34
-
KZ Stat Agency
7 (Internet subscribers)
123
BuddeCom
16 (Internet subscribers)
130
In the presented study all respondents emphasized that PC and the
Internet penetration in the country is still in its infancy. Among the fac-
tors slowing ICT adoption, business respondents pointed to high cost and
low-speed Internet. Just getting online for a business can cost between
$111 and $22,000 a month, depending on the desired connection speed
and not including hardware. The average monthly wage in Kazakhstan is
just $399. That means large swaths of the population are cut off from the
online world completely. The high cost can be explained by the fact that
there is only one major Internet provider in this country - KazakhTele-
com. However, KazakhTelecom doubled Internet speed by the end of 2011
(Tengrinews.kz, 2011a).
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