For a period of many years now, InfiNet Wireless’s equipment has been specified and used in projects for a significant number of Kazakh companies. Five years ago, Nursat, one of the largest telecom operators of Kazakhstan, made a significant investment in InfiNet Wireless’s equipment and became our first major customer in this country.

Another long-standing Kazakh customer is the multiservice operator. And sales of InfiNet Wireless’s equipment in Kazakhstan reached a new level at the beginning of 2014, when the company - together with its local partner Informsvyaz-Kazakhstan - won a tender held by a subsidiary of VimpelCom-Cartel to supply equipment for the connection of corporate enterprise clients.

The market for broadband equipment in Kazakhstan has huge growth potential, and in mid-2014, InfiNet Wireless included Kazakhstan amongst its priority development territories, appointing at the same time a permanent representative in the Republic. With wide-open spaces coupled with long distances between urban settlements, the complexity of the “last mile” deployment creates a massive opportunity for further development of the carrier segment in the Wireless Broadband equipment market. InfiNet Wireless now actively co-operates with one of the largest operators in the Republic - KazTransCom  - to supply wireless broadband equipment for the construction of telecommunications infrastructure.

The separate and distinct segment of ‘technological networks’ in Kazakhstan is also a very attractive market sector, due to the abundance of large reserves of minerals and fossil fuel resources in the country. Rich deposits of oil, natural gas, ore minerals and uranium led to the creation of a large number of companies tasked with the extraction and transportation of minerals during the Soviet period, including Munaigas, KazTransOil and KGNT. Their telecommunications infrastructure was initially established during the Soviet era, with further build-out taking place in the 1990s and early 2000s. Today, with the growth in the level of resource extraction, coupled with the opening of new sections of pipeline, the need for existing network modernization and expansion is apparent and has opened up new opportunities in this sector for telecommunications infrastructure investment.

In the Public Sector, the drive to strengthen public safety in the country - seen in the context of a buoyant economy and continual investment growth for government telecommunications infrastructure projects – has opened up the market for investment in new and innovative projects. Examples of such investment include the creation of urban video surveillance systems throughout the country, as well as projects engaged in the deployment of the the communication infrastructure for the United Government data centers.

The majority of customers in Kazakhstan tend to use fiber optical infrastructure as a core transmission medium– this is one of the unique characteristics of the Kazakhstan market. However, the geography and environmental challenges of the region do not always make the deployment of a “wired” infrastructure either economical or technically feasible, and so wireless transmission is starting to be seen as a viable alternative to optical networking in many areas of the country. The use of InfiNet Wireless’s highly reliable range of wireless transmission solutions has allowed operators to build long-distance, carrier-grade ‘trunk’ routes, based upon wireless technology, which provide high speed data transmission - up to 480 Mbp/s – across even the most difficult terrain. The deployment of these networks has enabled InfiNet Wireless to capture significant market share of the telecom market in Kazakhstan.

As with elsewhere in the world, Kazakhstan’s traffic consumption is also growing steadily year-on-year, and InfiNet Wireless has shown – through its modern, reliable, high-capacity and innovative wireless portfolio – that it is in a strong position to support the development of the growing market in Kazakhstan: and, aided by the partnership between Russia and Kazakhstan within the Customs Union, customers are also finding that InfiNet Wireless presents itself not only as a technical leader, but as a highly price-attractive competitor to incumbent foreign suppliers in the region.

Roman Smirnov, Business Development Director, InfiNet Wireless for Newsdesk Media, London, January 2015