Starting from August 1, internet service providers in Kazakhstan have reportedly massively hiked fees for online services to companies in neighbor and fellow Eurasian Economic Union member Kyrgyzstan.
Media in Kyrgyzstan are warning that internet users should expect their traffic bills to increase substantially in the future.
Kazakhstan is Kyrgyzstan’s only dependable, high-quality link to global online infrastructure, so any shift in the former’s market inevitably has a knock-on effect in the latter.
The Association of Communication Operators has called in a letter for the government to intervene by raising the issue at the Eurasian Economic Commission, the executive body of the EEU.
According to the letter, addressed to Prime Minister Oleg Pankratov, Kazakhstani operators, who they say have raised their tariffs by two- to threefold, are playing hardball. Any attempts by Kyrgyz to shop around for alternative providers will result in automatic cutoffs.
“Also, Kazakhstani operators are increasing transit prices for European and Russian operators which supply internet services to Kyrgyzstan,” the letter said.
Non-Kazakhstani-sourced internet dominates supply, accounting for 90 percent of the total in Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan’s state committee for information technology has been quick to react and has already decided after a meeting to take the case to the Eurasian Economic Commission. It wants to ask the commission to consider if the actions of Kazakhstani service providers are possibly in violation of founding treaties of the EEU.
According to RFE/RL’s Kyrgyzstan, Radio Azattyk, current household tariffs for unlimited internet range between 620 som ($10) and 3,000 ($48) per month. Even doubling those prices could wreak untold damage on the IT sector of a country where salaries remain intensely depressed.
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