VEYSEL ARAL It has been more than 12 years now since the first commercial launch of the GSM-900 standard.

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INTERVIEW
Veysel Aral
An Active Participant
TBY talks to Veysel Aral, CEO of Kcell, on the development of the
company, the role of innovation, and economic diversification. YEAR IN REVIEW
DIPLOMACY & POLITICS
TBY How has Kcell developed since its inception in 1998?
VEYSEL ARAL It has been more than 12 years now since the first commercial launch of the ECONOMY
GSM-900 standard. President Nazarbayev participated in the official launch ceremony of
Kcell’s mobile network. We are proud to state that Kcell was the first to give all Kazakhstani FINANCE
people a unique opportunity for integration into the global information network of GSM
standard mobile communications. Since then, owing to our dynamic investment approach as
ENERGY
BIOGRAPHY well as the support of our shareholders—Europe’s fifth largest cellular operator TeliaSonera,
and Kazakhtelecom—the national telecommunications infrastructure has become one of the
INDUSTRY & MINING
Veysel Aral began his career as a most advanced among the CIS. The development of mobile communication systems has made
telecommunications engineer at Turkish State a significant contribution to the local economy. Based on industrial experts’ opinions, the
ICT
Railways. From 1992 till 2007 he worked at increase in mobile communication penetration resulted in further growth of local GDP from 1%
Ericsson—the world’s largest international to 1.6%. The current nominal cellular communication penetration within Kazakhstan exceeds REVIEW
telecommunications company. In 2006 he was 100%. I believe those figures speak for themselves. For the past 12 years Kcell has invested Big Distances, Big
promoted to become Vice-President of Ericsson over $1.7 billion into telecoms infrastructure development, thus becoming one of the biggest Investments
in Istanbul, and in November 2007 he was investors of the non-oil-and-gas sector. By looking at those figures from a different
appointed CEO of GSM Kazakhstan/Kcell. In perspective, you can see that in 1999 we launched the operation in Almaty, and acquiring the INTERVIEW
addition to his CEO position at Kcell, he became 10,000th subscriber was a big step for us. As of today, the number of registered subscribers Veysel Aral, CEO, Kcell
Regional CEO of Central Asia in TeliaSonera has reached over 9 million. From a technical perspective, we started operations by using a few
INTERVIEW
Eurasia as of February 2011. base stations within one city, and we have more than 5,000 of them all over the country. Our
Kuat Bakhridinov, CEO, Alem
network covers more than 81% of Kazakhstan’s populated area, and Kcell operates in 2,621
Communications
cities and towns, which comprises 100% coverage of locations with more than 5,000 people
and 82% coverage of locations with more than 2,000 people. The plan is to provide mobile INTERVIEW
communications to all locations with over 1,000 people by 2013. We launched 3G in 2010 to Anatoliy Popov, General
support the OSCE Summit and acted for the 7th Asian Winter Games as the official mobile Manager, Beeline Kazakhstan
operator. As of today our 3G network is working in 32 cities built on over 900 base stations.
ROUND TABLE
Booting Up
How would you assess Kcell’s performance and vision as a pioneer in innovative
technologies? INTERVIEW
Seung Koo Kim, President,
Kcell aims to provide world-class services, and we pursue this objective with confidence
Samsung Electronics
through improvements in our tariff policy and our quality of service at all levels. Kcell has
Kazakhstan and Central Asia
always been a trendsetter and we are leading the development of the telecommunications
market in Kazakhstan. We shall continue doing this in 2011, introducing new 3G services, REVIEW
which not only meet but also form market demands. For instance, we plan to provide universal Watch this Space
services so that telephones can serve as modems, bankcards, and electronic door keys.
We’re also ready to launch 4G/long term evolution (LTE). I’m sure this is a good prospective INTERVIEW
for the further development of the Kazakhstani telecommunications market, which we hope will Igor Kindop, Editor-in-Chief,
be realized in the near future with the most active participation of our company. Kapital
TRANSPORT
How can the telecommunications sector contribute to the development of the
non-prime economy?
REAL ESTATE &
Kazakhstan has a challenging strategy to become one of the most competitive economies. CONSTRUCTION
Penetration and the availability of mobile telecoms services as well as the speed of mobile
broadband data traffic in mobile networks are the key factors in rating the most competitive AGRICULTURE
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economies. This is an obvious fact that drives economic development, too. However,
HEALTH & EDUCATION
Kazakhstan’s economy is too dependent on raw materials and oil and gas production, and of
course the price levels of these substances on the international markets.
TOURISM
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