• Friday 6 November. VEON reports results for the quarter to 30 September, the company said. The quarter includes Beeline Kazakhstan's launch of Starlink's satellite-to-mobile service on 29 September, according to VEON.
• Saturday 7 November. Kcell's materials for its extraordinary meeting on merging KazNet Media into the operator must be available to shareholders by this date, no later than 10 days before the meeting, according to the notice published on KASE. The notice gives no terms for the merger.
• Monday 9 to Friday 27 November. The ITU Plenipotentiary Conference meets at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center. Member states elect the Secretary-General, the Deputy Secretary-General and the directors of the three bureaux, and choose the 48 members of the ITU Council and the members of the Radio Regulations Board for 2027 to 2030, according to an ITU media advisory.
• Monday 16 November. VEON holds its Capital Markets Day, according to its September announcement.
• Tuesday 17 November. Kcell's shareholders meet at 11:00 Almaty time on the single agenda item, with 18 November as the fallback date if the meeting does not take place, according to the same notice.
• Wednesday 16 December. Approval date for the EBRD's proposed loan of up to EUR 48.4 million for Tajikistan's fibre backbone and rural broadband, according to the bank's project summary.
• Friday 25 December. Turkcell's second 5G licence instalment of USD 408 million falls due, according to its annual report on Form 20-F.
• End of December. The Kazakh government expects the main data centre and energy buildings at Data Center Valley in Ekibastuz to be erected by the end of the year, with commissioning works finished in May 2027 and a first 50 MW facility in operation in June 2027, according to its review of the project on 13 August.

Still without a date in the documents reviewed: an auction under the 5G spectrum caps that Kazakhstan's competition agency proposed on 14 October, BES.media reported, and the commissioning of the West-East fibre line, which the government targets for the end of the year, according to its 6 October summary.

Read on Corridor Signal

The Union of Employers of Information and Communication Technologies (UEICT) launched the event in 2019, and this is its 11th edition, under the theme "Invest in Innovation". It runs over two days for the first time and adds a technology exhibition for startups and technology-focused educational institutions, as well as a panel on women's leadership, the release says. Since 2019 the event has brought together more than 100 speakers, according to Ucom.

The organiser's website puts the summit at Dvin Music Hall on the first day and the Microelectronics International Forum on the second, with support from Armenia's Ministry of High-Tech Industry and Artificial Intelligence. Its programme lists fireside chats, an open innovation panel with Plug and Play and the awards of the 21st International Microelectronics Olympiad. Speakers named include Ricardo Pinto of Nokia and Hassan Mansour of Monty Mobile, and the second day lists presentations from Synopsys, Siemens EDA, Cisco and Microchip Technology, among others, on topics including chip design and verification, AI networks and physical AI.

The site lists more than 25 exhibition booths, 12 free spaces for startups, a workshop zone and three rooms for business meetings. An August announcement reported by ARKA spoke of more than 50 booths; the site does not say when its figure was set.

Ucom's general director, Ralph Yirikian, attended a press meeting before the event with the heads of Yandex Armenia and Synopsys Armenia and the chairman of UEICT, among others. "Technological advancement is impossible without continuous investment," he said in the release, which does not say how much Ucom contributes as a partner.

Corridor Signal has reported this month on Armenia's telecom revenue statistics and on Firebird's AI cloud in the country.

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The figures are in the sector description of the programme published in the Official Gazette on 27 October. It adds that cable internet stayed flat at 7.1 per cent over the same period and that the incumbent operator's share of the fixed market stood at 53.1 per cent in June 2026. The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) published the underlying market data report on 30 September, and its table is below.

Shares, the total row and the Q2 2025 composition are a Corridor Signal calculation from BTK's subscription counts; the change column for each technology is BTK's own. The total of 21,189,561 matches the 21.2 million fixed subscriptions in the report's foreword, and the same sums reproduce the programme's 46.4 and 37.8 per cent for DSL.

DSL lost 1,606,896 lines in the year, while fibre added 1,927,720, so fibre's gain exceeded DSL's loss by 320,824 on a Corridor Signal calculation. On Corridor Signal calculations from the same table, the fixed market as a whole grew by 461,892 lines, or 2.2 per cent, and fibre's share rose from 42.3 per cent a year earlier to the 50.5 per cent BTK reports. DSL fell 4.2 per cent in the quarter alone, against 16.7 per cent over twelve months, and fibre to the home grew 26.4 per cent over the year while fibre to the building shrank 6.2 per cent.

The programme's table of broadband indicators, on page 226, gives a different aggregate, covering fixed and mobile together. It lists broadband subscriptions of 96,383 thousand in 2024 and 97,443 thousand in 2025, with 98,500 thousand estimated for 2026 and 101,000 thousand set as the 2027 programme figure. Density, given in per cent, runs at 112, 113, 114 and 116 across the four years. For June 2026 the programme's text gives 100.8 million broadband subscriptions, up 3.5 per cent, while BTK's table gives 100,846,626 against 97,361,083, which is 3.6 per cent.

The programme does not name the incumbent. BTK's market share table lists TTNet first with 53.07 per cent of fixed broadband subscribers and 54.73 per cent of revenue, followed by Superonline with 15.06 per cent of subscribers and 18.50 per cent of revenue, and Turksat with 7.40 and 3.26 per cent. Turknet holds 6.92 per cent of subscribers and Vodafone Net 6.14 per cent. Internet service providers also accounted for 51.6 per cent of the complaints BTK received in the quarter, as the complaints piece reported.

Copper retirement has also begun in Kazakhstan, where Turkestan became the first Kazakh city to retire ADSL lines. Separately, Türk Telekom signed a $1bn club loan on 26 October for 5G and fibre.

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The partnership held 47,457,435 of the company's 50,572,714 common shares, all of which are outstanding, and was the only holder of 10 per cent or more, the exchange notice shows. Alma Telecommunications, listed under the ticker ALTV, replaced most of its board on 30 September; Corridor Signal's review of board changes at listed Kazakh telecoms noted then that the board notice did not identify the shareholder behind the change. The new filing names the majority holder, but does not say who stands behind AT Acquisition Corp.

A second notice the same day covers ASTEL. Arna-Sprint Data Communications JSC owned all 226,000 outstanding common shares, which the ASTEL notice puts at 97.00 per cent of all outstanding shares once the 6,990 outstanding preferred shares are counted. ASTEL has 500,000 authorised common shares, of which 226,000 are outstanding.

The notices list only holders of 10 per cent or more, so they do not show how the remaining shares are spread, how many minority holders there are, or whether any of them hold shares through nominees.

The exchange published similar shareholder information for Kcell. Its update, published a day later, showed its two largest holders unchanged ahead of its 17 November vote, as Corridor Signal reported in its brief on the Kcell register.

On Corridor Signal's arithmetic, other holders account for 6.16 per cent of Alma Telecommunications, and the preferred shares, whose holders the notice does not name, make up the other 3.00 per cent of ASTEL's outstanding shares. Neither notice gives any change in holdings since the previous quarter.

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A daily package switches on when the monthly fee falls due and the balance is too low to pay it, and it renews each day until the account holds enough for the monthly charge. If the balance cannot cover even the daily package, service is suspended until the customer tops up by enough to pay for the month. The package includes unlimited calls to other MegaFon Tajikistan subscribers, minutes to other networks in Tajikistan, a data allowance and SMS where the monthly plan includes them, each at one thirtieth of the monthly allowance. The notice says the price depends on the base tariff but gives no figure for Life.

The service began on the operator's "Sozdavay 2.0" plan. A June notice set the start for 18 June 2026 and gave the price formula: the monthly fee divided by 30, plus 30 per cent. Its worked example is a monthly package of 90 minutes, 90 GB and 150 SMS at 186.5 somoni, which becomes a daily package of 3 minutes, 3 GB and 5 SMS at 8.09 somoni a day. On that example, a customer who stayed on daily packages for 30 days would pay about 242.7 somoni, roughly 30 per cent more than the monthly fee, by our calculation.

The October notice says the daily packages proved a convenient solution, which is why they are being extended to the Life tariff. It does not say how many customers use that tariff or how many have used daily packages since June.

The operator's tariffs page lists six monthly packages under its Sozdavay 2.0 plan, all with unlimited on-net calls, unlimited night use and the IVI and Oila TV services: 50 minutes and 28 GB for 84.50 somoni, 50 minutes and 40 GB for 102.50, 50 minutes and 45 GB for 109.50, 100 minutes and 50 GB for 126.50, 170 minutes and 60 GB for 154.50, and 200 minutes and 150 GB for 286.50. The page does not list a Life tariff.

The change is the operator's second published service move in a month, after it handed its wired broadband customers to Tojiktelecom on 19 October. Elsewhere in the corridor, Mobiuz in Uzbekistan set fees UZS 10,000 higher on 20 older plans from 3 November, with allowances unchanged.

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Operating profit fell in both periods, by 11.9 per cent to TL 19.6 billion over the half and by 21.8 per cent to TL 8.9 billion in the quarter. The half-year result before tax rose because of two lines below operating profit: net finance costs, helped by a monetary gain of TL 10.7 billion against TL 2.4 billion a year earlier, and a smaller loss from equity-accounted investees.

The monetary gain is not cash. Turkcell reports under IAS 29, the standard for hyperinflationary economies, so its figures are expressed in lira of 30 June 2026 purchasing power and its comparatives are restated with the general price index of the current period, the filing says. Under that standard a company with more monetary liabilities than monetary assets records a gain as prices rise, because the real value of what it owes falls. In its second-quarter commentary the company says higher foreign-exchange losses, driven mainly by a larger net short foreign-exchange position tied to 5G investments, were partly offset by monetary gains after the 5G licence was capitalised. The pages reviewed do not define the line or give the monetary position behind it.

How the half and the quarter differ

Figures are TL million from the income statement, in lira of 30 June 2026 purchasing power, with costs and losses in brackets. Changes and first-quarter amounts, which are the half-year figure less the second quarter, are the Data Desk's calculation.

The three changes add up: -2,643.6 plus 1,838.3 plus 2,719.3 is 1,914.0. The monetary gain equals 56.1 per cent of first-half profit before tax and 54.0 per cent of finance costs, against 17.3 per cent of finance costs a year earlier.

The half-year improvement in net finance costs came in the first quarter, when Turkcell had net finance income of TL 1,679.2 million against net finance costs of TL 501.5 million a year earlier. In the second quarter net finance costs rose to TL 2,114.2 million from TL 1,771.9 million even though the monetary gain more than quadrupled, and the gain equalled 76.2 per cent of profit before tax.

The loss from equity-accounted investees, TL 81.5 million in the half against TL 2,800.8 million, is the largest positive contributor to the rise in pre-tax profit. The commentary says the carmaker TOGG improved its financial performance year on year as it scaled its operations, giving a more favourable contribution to the group's net income. The pages reviewed do not say how much of the TL 2,719.3 million swing is Togg's.

Quarterly amounts from different releases do not add. Turkcell's first-quarter Form 6-K gave net income of TL 4,634 million, while the half-year figure less the second quarter is TL 4,959.5 million, a difference consistent with the restatement of comparatives.

Prices, revenue and the December dividend

The consumer price index in the notes stands at 129.99 at 30 June 2026, 110.39 at 31 December 2025 and 98.40 at 30 June 2025, a rise of 17.8 per cent in six months and 32.1 per cent in twelve, the Data Desk calculates. The release gives second-quarter consumer price inflation of 32.1 per cent year on year. Turkcell's chief executive says the company has revised its year-end inflation assumption to 28 per cent and keeps its full-year guidance. If that is measured as the index at 31 December 2026 against 31 December 2025, the index would end the year near 141.3, a rise of about 8.7 per cent in the second half. The filing does not say what monetary gain Turkcell expects.

Total revenue grew 5.6 per cent to TL 144.9 billion in the half and 2.5 per cent to TL 71.8 billion in the second quarter, on figures restated into current lira. The release's guidance is for 5 to 7 per cent real revenue growth and, in the pages reviewed, does not define real. Because both years are already in June 2026 lira, these growth rates are inflation-adjusted on that basis; the release does not say whether the guidance is measured the same way.

Turkcell paid no dividend in the first half of 2026, against TL 4,835.0 million in the first half of 2025, the cash flow statement shows. The filing records an accrued dividend liability of TL 8,791.7 million, payable on 9 December 2026. The board proposed on 17 March a gross dividend of TL 4.00 a share, TL 8.8 billion in total, and the annual general meeting approved it on 7 May, the company's first-quarter activity report says. The payment equals 9.8 per cent of the TL 89.3 billion of consolidated cash at 30 June, the Data Desk calculates. Corridor Signal has covered the company's licence costs and net debt and its resumed share buyback.

Next release: Turkcell plans to publish its July to September results on 9 November 2026 after the close of trading on Borsa Istanbul, Hisse.net reports, citing a notice the company filed on the Public Disclosure Platform on 20 October. The report mentions no results call.

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The release gives values at current prices and growth rates at comparable prices, and says so in its notes. On the committee's values alone the sector grew by UZS 15,883.4 billion, or 25.7 per cent; the gap to 21.4 per cent is the price adjustment, and the release does not publish the index it used. Total market services reached UZS 1,003,197.6 billion, up 16.7 per cent, so communication and information services were 7.7 per cent of the total.

Among the categories the release lists, only financial services (22.0 per cent) and the small architecture, engineering and testing group (24.2 per cent) grew faster. The sector added 1.6 percentage points to the 16.7 per cent growth in market services, behind trade (4.0), financial services (3.4), transport (2.8) and accommodation and food (2.1).

Programming took two thirds of the increase

The committee splits the sector by type. Computer programming services were UZS 37,559.2 billion, or 48.4 per cent. Telecommunication services followed with 27.5 per cent, information services with 15.8 per cent, and publishing and other services with 6.1 and 2.2 per cent. The release's chart combines the last two into "other services".

Values are the release's; changes and the 2026 shares of the last row are calculated from them in current prices, so they sit above the committee's comparable-price rate. Programming added UZS 10,345.2 billion, 65 per cent of the sector's increase, while telecommunication added UZS 3,233.1 billion, 20 per cent. The release says the high share of programming "indicates that this direction plays an important role in the development of digital services". It names no companies and does not separate mobile, fixed or data-centre revenue within telecommunication.

The mix has been moving for months. The committee's release of 30 June, covering January to May, put the sector at UZS 39,024.8 billion, with programming at 46.1 per cent and telecommunication at 29.7 per cent. By September programming had gained 2.3 points of share and telecommunication had lost 2.2. In that release the category was called information and communication services, and in January to May programming grew 40.4 per cent and telecommunication 17.1 per cent in current prices, the same pattern as nine months. These shares are of services revenue; they are not the value-added shares in our earlier piece on ICT output, where telecoms stood at 28.9 per cent.

Reconciling the eight-month figure

Our report of 27 October used the committee's release of 12 October, which put the sector at UZS 71.4 trillion in January to August, up 21.2 per cent. On the evidence available, the two releases measure the same series. The committee's eight-month table of market services, as reported by UzDaily, lists communication and information technology services at UZS 71.4 trillion within a services total of UZS 908.6 trillion, and the nine-month table uses the same category inside the same total.

What the releases do not let a reader do is subtract. The eight-month release gave no type split and did not state the price basis of its growth rate, so the nine-month composition cannot be checked against it. Subtracting 71.4 from 77.6 implies about UZS 6.2 trillion for September alone, against an average of 8.9 trillion a month over the first eight months, or about 70 per cent of that pace. The same arithmetic on all market services gives UZS 94.6 trillion for September against a monthly average of 113.6 trillion, or 83 per cent.

The nine-month release calls its data preliminary and says its 2025 comparatives were revised for a new method of counting trade services. Neither release says whether September was a weak month or whether earlier months were revised. Readers should treat UZS 6.2 trillion as the output of the arithmetic, not as a published September figure, and use the cumulative totals. The January to September figures predate the mobile tariff rises that the competition committee began to review in October, so they show nothing of their effect.

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The group as a whole grew faster: revenue rose 17.0 per cent to $1,271 million and EBITDA 6.2 per cent to $552 million, and VEON raised its 2026 revenue growth outlook to 15 to 18 per cent, according to its results release.

Uzbekistan moved the other way on profit. Revenue rose 5.3 per cent in local currency to UZS 1,009 billion and EBITDA 2.3 per cent to UZS 372 billion, or $84 million and $31 million, with a margin the presentation gives as 36.8 per cent.

The first half, from the filing

The six-month segment table in VEON's interim report on Form 6-K gives the same direction over a longer period, in US dollars:

Kazakh revenue rose 12.6 per cent in dollars and adjusted EBITDA fell 7.5 per cent, or 12.3 per cent in local currency, the filing says; the rounded figures in the table give 7.7 per cent. The margins in the last row are Corridor Signal's division of EBITDA by revenue; VEON does not print them for the half. On that arithmetic the Kazakh margin fell by nine percentage points in a year, while Uzbekistan's slipped by about one and a half.

What VEON says caused it

The filing attributes the Kazakh decline in local currency mainly to higher service costs, commercial costs, personnel costs and marketing spend, and at group level cites "weaker gross margin and higher personnel costs in Kazakhstan". It says the fall in local-currency ARPU in Kazakhstan was driven mainly by lower mobile service revenue usage. The presentation's Kazakhstan slide speaks of macroeconomic and competitive headwinds in its heading and gives no further explanation.

In Uzbekistan the filing credits repricing, higher digital financial services revenue and higher device sales for revenue growth, partly offset at EBITDA level by personnel and service costs. It links the change in its customer numbers there to "increased competition in the market and focus on high-value customer retention".

Digital share and 4G

Digital revenue was 20.0 per cent of the Kazakh total in the quarter, KZT 21.5 billion, up 26.8 per cent, and 15.3 per cent of the Uzbek total, UZS 155 billion, up 21.0 per cent, the presentation shows. It counts 8.7 million three-month active 4G users in Kazakhstan, a penetration of 74.7 per cent, and 5.6 million in Uzbekistan, or 72.7 per cent. Capital expenditure over the last twelve months was 21.0 and 20.7 per cent of revenue. The presentation does not give total mobile subscribers for either country.

What the third quarter adds

VEON will report results for the quarter to 30 September on 6 November and hold a Capital Markets Day on 16 November, according to its announcement. The quarter includes the Kazakh launch of Starlink's satellite-to-mobile service on 29 September, which Corridor Signal reported, but not the purchase of Perfectum in Uzbekistan, which was cleared with conditions after the quarter ended. Beeline's licences in both countries list no 5G, according to VEON's annual report in the documents reviewed.

Read on Corridor Signal

The release gives no split between mobile, fixed, internet and other services, names no operators, and does not say whether the index is calculated at comparable prices. The two value columns imply nominal growth of 10.4 per cent, on Link Budget's arithmetic, which suggests the 107.1 per cent index strips out price changes, but the release does not say so. The 2026 figures are marked as preliminary.

Even after the slowdown, the year is running ahead of 2025. The same table gives an index of 106.2 per cent for January to September 2025 against the year before, so the 2026 rate of 107.1 per cent is 0.9 percentage points higher. The January to August comparison was wider: 108.3 per cent in 2026 against 106.2 per cent a year earlier, according to the August release. The gap between the two years has therefore narrowed from 2.1 to 0.9 points in one month, on Link Budget's arithmetic.

What September added

Subtracting the eight-month totals from the nine-month totals, September 2026 accounted for about KGS 3,541.8 million of communication services, against about KGS 3,425.4 million in September 2025, a nominal increase of about 3.4 per cent, on Link Budget's arithmetic. In the first eight months the nominal increase was 11.4 per cent, from KGS 25,623.1 million to KGS 28,541.0 million, the August release shows.

The monthly figure should be read with care. It is derived from two preliminary cumulative totals, and either year's base may be revised; the committee does not publish a separate September series in the release.

Postal and courier services

Postal and courier services grew faster. They reached KGS 2,552.8 million in January to September, against KGS 2,250.8 million a year earlier, with an index of 113.8 per cent, down from 117.0 per cent for January to August, according to the September release. Communication services were about 12.6 times the size of postal and courier services over the nine months, a Link Budget calculation.

The same release shows the wider transport sector moving faster than communications: freight carried by all modes rose to 53,546.5 thousand tonnes, an index of 108.9 per cent, and passengers carried to 494.7 million, an index of 106.5 per cent. Within freight, rail carried 7,762.3 thousand tonnes and road 45,404.5 thousand tonnes, the table shows.

What officials say about the network

The statistics do not cover network build. At the International Telecommunication Union's regional forum in Dushanbe on 29 and 30 September, Altynbek Toktorbaev, chairman of the Kyrgyz Republic's Communications Regulation and Supervision Service, cited the construction of about 3,500 km of fibre-optic lines and connectivity for about 99 per cent of settlements, with satellite solutions used for the remaining gaps in mountainous areas, according to the ITU's draft outcome report. The report does not say over what period the fibre was built or who owns it. A regulator official also described a pilot that brought satellite internet to a high-mountain school in Issyk-Kul region.

None of these documents gives operator revenue or subscriber counts, so the slowdown cannot be traced to a particular company or service from the published data.

The committee's January to October release, which on the timing of the last two would appear in mid-November, is the next document to read.

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Neither account gives a value in manat, a split between mobile, fixed, internet and postal services, or subscriber numbers, and neither says whether the growth is measured at current or constant prices. The transport and communications complex as a whole grew 14.7 per cent in the nine months, the 2 October account says, with the Ministry of Railway Transport at 7.4 per cent, the Ministry of Motor Transport at 15.8 per cent and the national airline service at 21.8 per cent. Within GDP growth of 6.3 per cent, the transport and communications sector grew 10.4 per cent.

5G in Awaza

Trend reported on 15 October, citing the press service of the government, that Altyn Asyr, a Turkmen mobile operator, had launched 5G services in the Awaza National Tourist Zone ahead of high-level international events held there from 7 to 9 October. The report gives no speeds, number of sites, frequency band or equipment supplier. Backhaul has not found the government statement on the official government or news agency sites.

Altyn Asyr announced an international tender in March for 4G and 5G base stations and the modernisation of its network in several regions, Trend reported on 26 March. The report did not name the regions or give quantities, and no award has been published.

Quality of service

At the 1 August meeting, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov instructed the deputy chairman of the cabinet who reported on transport and communications to hold the issue of "improvement of the quality of telecommunication service rendered to the population in the centre of attention", the State News Agency's account says.

The next document is the cabinet's account of full-year results, which would show whether the ministry held its growth rate through December.

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The calendar notice gives only the date. It does not say whether an earnings call will follow or whether the company will update its full-year guidance. For the second quarter, a 6 July notice set 5 August as the date for the reports, and the company disclosed its guidance revision on that day.

The yardstick: August guidance

The third-quarter results will be measured against guidance the company revised on 5 August. Türk Telekom then narrowed its 2026 forecast for consolidated revenue growth, excluding IFRIC 12, to 8 per cent from 8 to 9 per cent, kept its EBITDA margin forecast at 41 to 42 per cent and set capital expenditure intensity at 34 per cent, from 33 to 34 per cent, according to the guidance disclosure. It cited geopolitical risks and macroeconomic developments, and raised its assumption for year-end inflation in 2026 to 27 per cent from 22 per cent.

The guidance excludes spending on solar investments, on the extension agreement for the provision of electronic communication services and on licence fees, the disclosure says. It does not say whether the revenue growth target is stated in nominal terms or after adjustment for inflation, which matters when the company itself assumes 27 per cent inflation for the year.

Costs inside the quarter

Wages for about 8,200 employees covered by the collective agreement with the Türkiye Haber-İş union rose by 8 per cent from 1 September, the second step of a two-year agreement that raised them by 24 per cent from 1 March, according to a disclosure of 22 May. If inflation over the six months exceeds 8 per cent, the excess, together with a welfare adjustment of 15 per cent of that rate, is added to the March 2027 increase, the disclosure says. The agreement runs from 1 March 2026 to 29 February 2028. The third-quarter accounts will include one month at the new rate; the disclosure gives no estimate of the cost of either step.

On 12 August the board resolved to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the company's real estate portfolio, to evaluate its economic value and use and to identify alternatives for managing it, a disclosure shows. The company said developments would be disclosed in due course; its disclosure list shows none to 17 October.

Ratings and management

S&P Global Ratings affirmed the company at BB/B with a stable outlook on 9 July, and its stand-alone credit profile at bbb-, two notches higher, according to a disclosure of that date. Fitch kept its long-term foreign-currency rating at BB- and moved the outlook to positive and then back to stable, each time following its outlook on Türkiye, disclosures of 4 February and 27 April show. JCR Eurasia Rating affirmed the company's international rating at BB and its national rating at AAA (tr), both with stable outlooks, on 13 August.

On 13 October the company said its IT assistant general manager, Gökhan Evren, and its head of enterprise risk, Serdar Toraman, had left. Bilal Topal, previously legal collections director, was appointed acting IT assistant general manager, and Oguzhan Satiroglu, previously executive and CEO general management coordinator, was named head of enterprise risk, according to the disclosure. Satiroglu joined the company in July 2026 after a career at the Ministry of Trade.

The results on 4 November are the next document to read: they should show revenue growth against the 8 per cent guidance, capital expenditure intensity against 34 per cent, and whether the company changes either forecast.

Read on Corridor Signal

Tashkent city accounted for UZS 53.6 trillion of the total, about 75 per cent, on Link Budget's arithmetic from the regional figures in the release. The release does not split the total between telecom operators, internet providers, software and IT services, and postal and courier activity, and it does not say whether the 21.2 per cent growth is measured at current or constant prices. It names no companies. It also does not say how revenue is allocated between regions, for example by where a company is registered or where the service is used.

The sector against the economy

Among the categories the committee lists, only financial services grew faster. Total market services reached UZS 908,551.9 billion in January to August, up 17.0 per cent, the committee said in its socio-economic press release for the period, published on 28 September. Financial services grew 22.5 per cent, trade 16.5 per cent, transport 15.9 per cent and accommodation and food 14.4 per cent. Information and communication services contributed 1.6 percentage points to the total 17.0 per cent growth, the release says, the smallest of the five contributions it lists, because the sector starts from a smaller base than trade, finance or transport.

On the committee's figures, communication and information services made up about 7.9 per cent of all market services in the eight months, a Link Budget calculation. Trade services were the largest category at UZS 213,994.1 billion, followed by accommodation and food services at UZS 173,199.6 billion financial services at UZS 144,672.8 billion and transport services at UZS 141,663.5 billion.

Consumer prices rose 3.4 per cent in January to August, the same release says, with services up 4.7 per cent on average. It does not give a separate price index for communication services.

The regional split

Outside Tashkent city, the release shows, the largest totals were in Fergana region at UZS 2.4 trillion, Samarkand and Tashkent regions at UZS 2.3 trillion each, and Andijan region at UZS 1.6 trillion. Kashkadarya recorded UZS 1.4 trillion; Namangan and Khorezm UZS 1.2 trillion each; Karakalpakstan, Bukhara and Surkhandarya UZS 1.1 trillion each. The smallest were Jizzakh at UZS 897.4 billion, Navoi at UZS 732.5 billion and Syrdarya at UZS 459.9 billion. The 14 regional figures add up to UZS 71.39 trillion, consistent with the national total after rounding.

Together, the 13 regions outside the capital accounted for about UZS 17.8 trillion, roughly a quarter of the national figure, on Link Budget's arithmetic.

Prices under review

The figures cover a period before the mobile price rises that operators announced in early October. On 9 October the Committee for the Development of Competition and Protection of Consumer Rights said in a statement on its Telegram channel that some mobile operators had announced price increases expected in the coming days, and that consumers had objected that larger data allowances were not matched by a guaranteed level of service quality. The committee said it had begun examining whether the rises were justified and that, if anti-competitive or discriminatory conduct were found, it would open an inspection and take measures under the law. The statement did not name the operators that announced rises or give the size of the increases.

Because the committee's eight-month figures do not separate mobile revenue from the rest of the sector, they do not show how much of the 21.2 per cent growth came from operators. The committee's January to September figures are the next document to read.

Read on Corridor Signal

Türk Telekom's own second-quarter release shows its machine-to-machine (M2M) lines rose by 3.2 million to 6.4 million over the same period, so about three-quarters of the gain was M2M lines, by Corridor Signal's calculation. The additions lifted its share of subscriptions to 32.0 per cent from 29.6 per cent. TT Mobil's share of mobile revenue was 24.2 per cent, BTK says.

What the share figures count

BTK's chart of subscribers by operator is titled as including M2M lines, so the shares built on it include them. BTK puts M2M subscriptions at 15.2 million at the end of June, against 10.3 million at the end of 2024 and 14.4 million at the end of 2025, its report shows. Total mobile subscriptions including M2M rose from 94.32 million to 99.69 million in 2025, so M2M accounted for about 4.1 million of the 5.4 million increase, by Corridor Signal's calculation. The main body of the report does not split M2M by operator.

What the operators report

• Türk Telekom: mobile subscribers rose to 32.7 million from 28.5 million, matching BTK's TT Mobil figures of 32.74 million and 28.54 million, and M2M lines to 6.4 million from 3.2 million, its release shows. Excluding M2M, the base grew to 26.3 million from 25.3 million, or about 4 per cent, by Corridor Signal's calculation.
• Turkcell: its mobile subscriber base passed 40 million, and M2M lines rose to 6.1 million from 5.4 million, its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows. Excluding M2M, the base grew to about 33.9 million from 33.4 million, or about 1.5 per cent, by the same calculation.
• Vodafone: BTK's chart shows subscriptions of 29.49 million against 29.22 million a year earlier. Its M2M lines are not given in the sources reviewed.

The releases round to 0.1 million, so the growth rates excluding M2M are approximate. By the same calculation from BTK's chart, Turkcell added 1.28 million subscriptions of all kinds in the year and Vodafone 0.27 million.

Revenue, ARPU and portability

By revenue, BTK puts Turkcell at 41.1 per cent of the market, Vodafone at 34.7 per cent and TT Mobil at 24.2 per cent in the second quarter. Against a year earlier, TT Mobil's share was 0.2 points lower, Vodafone's 0.4 points lower and Turkcell's 0.5 points higher, BTK says. Average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) was TL 368.5 at Turkcell, TL 364.4 at Vodafone and TL 280.4 at TT Mobil, the same report shows. The report does not say whether those figures include M2M lines.

The companies' releases show how much M2M can lower a blended figure. Türk Telekom reports mobile ARPU of TL 285.6 including M2M and TL 354.0 excluding it, per its release. Turkcell reports TL 382.7 and TL 447.6, on an inflation-adjusted basis, its filing shows. M2M therefore lowers blended ARPU by 19.3 per cent at Türk Telekom and 14.5 per cent at Turkcell, by Corridor Signal's calculation. BTK's TT Mobil figure is close to Türk Telekom's blended one, which suggests that it includes M2M, although the report does not confirm this. The three sets of ARPU may not share a basis, and Turkcell's is inflation-adjusted, so Corridor Signal does not compare the companies' own figures with each other.

In the second quarter, TT Mobil gained about 161,000 subscribers through number portability, while Turkcell lost 86,000 and Vodafone about 75,000, BTK says. Monthly churn in June was 1.3 per cent at TT Mobil, 1.4 per cent at Vodafone and 1.6 per cent at Turkcell, the report says. In BTK's chart of nine quarters, TT Mobil recorded net portability gains in eight and Vodafone net losses in eight. Total portability volume was 2,782,985 in the quarter against 4,958,583 a year earlier.

Türk Telekom said in its release that it finished the quarter as leader of the portability market and expects year-on-year ARPU growth to turn positive in the second half. Turkcell said that mobile churn improved to 1.6 per cent from 2.2 per cent a year earlier and that it expects ARPU growth to strengthen progressively, with a more visible effect from the fourth quarter, its filing says.

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Revenue from telecommunications and from TV and radio production and broadcasting together totalled AMD 119.76 billion, up 7.2 per cent on the same period of 2025 in comparable prices. TV programme production and broadcasting brought in AMD 6.56 billion, up 1.8 per cent, and radio AMD 1.15 billion, down 1.0 per cent, the same table shows. ARKA reported the figures on 8 October.

At the rate of 361.97 drams to the dollar that ARKA used, telecommunications revenue for the eight months equals about $310 million, and the combined sector total of AMD 119.76 billion about $331 million, by Corridor Signal's calculation. The series covers the classification codes for radio programming (60.1), television programming (60.2) and telecommunications (61), as the 2025 report lays them out. It gives no figures for individual operators, subscribers or tariffs, so it cannot be used to attribute the growth to any one company.

Month by month

Armstat's monthly series for the combined sector shows faster growth in the second quarter and July than in the first quarter. Cumulative growth rose from 5.7 per cent for January to June, when revenue was AMD 87.40 billion, to 7.2 per cent for January to August. January had the slowest growth of the eight months, at 2.8 per cent, on revenue of AMD 13.77 billion. All rates below compare each period with the same period of 2025 in comparable prices.

• First quarter: AMD 42.23 billion, up 4.0 per cent.
• Second quarter: AMD 45.17 billion, up 7.2 per cent, with June up 9.1 per cent.
• July: AMD 16.75 billion, up 16.0 per cent and 6.8 per cent above June.
• August: AMD 15.61 billion, up 7.2 per cent and 6.8 per cent below July.

July's AMD 16.75 billion is the highest monthly total in Armstat's 2025 and 2026 series. The 2025 peak was December, at AMD 15.70 billion, Armstat's report for January to December 2025 says. Last year showed no comparable summer jump. In comparable prices, July 2025 revenue was 0.5 per cent above June and August 2025 was 0.9 per cent above July, the same report shows.

Armstat's growth rates are in comparable prices. Using the nominal monthly totals in the 2026 and 2025 reports, Corridor Signal calculates nominal growth of 7.0 per cent for January to August, from AMD 111.92 billion to AMD 119.76 billion. The gap to Armstat's 7.2 per cent is 0.2 percentage points. The calculation assumes that the 2025 monthly figures have not been revised since they were published.

What the sector is made of

Armstat's latest breakdown by service is for 2025. Sector revenue that year was AMD 171.55 billion, up 2.7 per cent in comparable prices, of which telecommunications was AMD 159.35 billion, up 3.1 per cent, the January to December 2025 report shows. Growth in the first eight months of 2026 is running well above the rate for 2025 as a whole. The 2025 revenue by service was as follows, with changes in comparable prices.

• Internet access: AMD 85.02 billion, up 4.4 per cent, or 49.5 per cent of sector revenue.
• Mobile telephony: AMD 42.65 billion, up 3.7 per cent, or 24.8 per cent of sector revenue.
• Other telecommunications services: AMD 18.49 billion, up 0.8 per cent.
• Cable television systems: AMD 8.26 billion, down 0.4 per cent.
• Wired telephony: AMD 4.92 billion, down 8.1 per cent.

The January to August release carries no split by service. Armstat's table therefore does not show whether internet access, mobile services or other services drove the July increase, and it gives no reason for the jump. Armstat publishes the socio-economic report each month, its publications catalogue says, and the January to September edition will show whether July proves to be a one-off.

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The rises run from 6.1 per cent on the most expensive of the plans to 50 per cent on the cheapest, by Corridor Signal's calculation. The notice says the subscription fee for 21 plans "will change" from 3 November and lists the new fee and allowances for each. It does not state the current fees or give a reason. The notice also says the new fee is charged from the next monthly debit, but not earlier than 3 November.

Corridor Signal compared the notice with the fees shown on the operator's archived-plan pages on 24 October. Twenty of the 21 plans have a page there. On every one, the new fee is exactly UZS 10,000 above the fee shown, and the minutes, data and SMS in the notice match those on the page. No archived page was found for the 21st plan, Mazza 60+, which the notice prices at UZS 80,000 a month.

Six of the 20 plans rise by 20 per cent or more, and 11 by 14.3 per cent or more. The largest rise in percentage terms is on Barchaga, a UZS 20,000 plan with 500 minutes, 500 SMS and 10 GB for TAS-IX resources. Mobiuz stopped activations of and switches to Barchaga from 7 October, a notice of 24 September shows. The same notice said activations of M, Mazza 70 and Xotirjam 80 would be temporarily unavailable for technical reasons.

Older plans against the current range

From 3 November some older plans cost as much as, or more than, plans Mobiuz now sells with the same or larger data allowances. Mazza 70 costs UZS 80,000 for 150 GB, unlimited calls in Uzbekistan and 5,000 SMS, the same price, data, calls and SMS as the current ORZU plan on the operator's ORZU tariff page. Mobi 150 costs UZS 175,000 for 115,000 MB, against UZS 150,000 for 400 GB on ORZU 150, and Mobi 110 costs UZS 135,000 for 95,000 MB, against UZS 110,000 for 250 GB on ORZU 110. The plans differ in SMS allowances and bundled services, so these comparisons cover only the fee and the data allowance.

The review behind the numbers

The notice came ten days after Uzbekistan's Competition Committee said it had begun examining whether price increases by mobile operators were justified. In its statement of 9 October the committee said consumers objected that tariff rises were out of proportion to the extra internet traffic added to plans, that the traffic could not always be used in full because quality was not guaranteed, and that unused traffic did not carry over to the next month. On the 20 plans compared here, the fee rises while the allowances stay as they were. The committee gave no timetable for its review. Corridor Signal's report on the review examined earlier Mobiuz changes this year, which added data as fees rose, and statistics committee data show communication and information services output rising this year.

Method and gaps

The fees before the change are those in the summary boxes of Mobiuz's archived-plan pages on 24 October; the notice gives no earlier fees. The pages are not fully consistent. The conditions text on the GAP yo'q Pro and GAP yo'q Ultra pages cites monthly fees of UZS 75,000 and UZS 100,000, below the UZS 90,000 and UZS 110,000 in their summary boxes, which would make those two rises larger. The identical UZS 10,000 step across all 20 plans suggests the summary figures are the fees in force, but Mobiuz has not published them alongside the notice. The notice also lists annual-payment prices for 15 plans: for six the annual price is ten times the new monthly fee, while the figures for the other nine, from UZS 60,000 to UZS 8 million, do not follow that pattern.

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The June count was built in the first three months of commercial service, which began on 1 April, and Corridor Signal's analysis of that report found it appeared to consist largely of existing 4.5G subscriptions recounted. Because Koçyiğit gave a round number, only the minimum increase since June can be calculated.

What the new figure does not say

The statement does not define the count. BTK's June report gave two measures: 44,487,035 5G subscriptions and 44,268,946 5G real users, a measure that excludes machine-to-machine lines. It also counted 26,102,884 active 5G subscribers and 29,777,164 5G-compatible devices, and said fewer people could use the service than were counted on it because some devices or SIM cards were not compatible with 5G. The October statement gives no active count, so it does not show whether the number of people able to use 5G has changed since June.

Sources: BTK's second-quarter market report for the June column and its statement of 23 October for the October column.

The speed figure

Koçyiğit also said average mobile download speed had risen by 69 per cent compared with the period before 1 April, to 110.62 Mbps, according to crowd-sourced measurements. The statement does not name the source of the measurements, the period averaged or whether the figure covers all mobile technologies or 5G alone. A 69 per cent rise to 110.62 Mbps implies an earlier average of about 65 Mbps, by Corridor Signal's calculation. BTK's second-quarter report has no measure of mobile speed to check it against; its speed data describe the packages bought by fixed broadband subscribers. In his foreword to that report, Koçyiğit wrote that download speeds had been seen as more important in the past but that current developments suggested this could change.

Figures repeated from June

Two other figures in the speech, 100.8 million broadband subscribers and 720,000 km of fibre, are the end-June totals in the second-quarter report, which BTK announced on 30 September. The report splits the broadband total into 21.2 million fixed and 79.7 million mobile subscribers and puts fibre length 13 per cent above the 637,000 km of a year earlier. Koçyiğit also said 92.3 per cent of citizens use the internet, without giving a source, and that about US$355 billion had been invested in transport and communications infrastructure over the last 24 years, a total that does not separate the two sectors.

Operators and next dates

The published report does not give 5G subscribers by operator: its contents list annex charts of operator shares of 5G subscribers on pages 98 and 99, but the file ends at page 94. The next operator documents are the third-quarter accounts. Türk Telekom has scheduled its results for 4 November, according to its disclosure of 1 October, and Turkcell plans to publish on 9 November after the Borsa Istanbul close, Hisse.net reported, citing a Turkcell disclosure of 20 October. Neither document says whether 5G subscriber numbers will be included. Corridor Signal's preview of Türk Telekom's quarter sets out the guidance its results will be measured against, and its 5G Scorecard sets Türkiye's published 5G figures beside those of its neighbours. BTK has not announced a date for its third-quarter report; the second-quarter edition appeared 92 days after the quarter ended.

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• Friday 30 October. Holders of Transtelecom's TCOMb1 bonds (KZ2C00006344) meet to vote on amending the coupon rate and the issue prospectus, according to the notice on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange. The notice does not give the current or the proposed rate.
• Friday 6 November. VEON reports results for the quarter to 30 September, the company said. They will be the first accounts since VEON began repurchasing 72.5 million shares, about $200 million at the 22 September close, all to be cancelled, according to the release furnished to the SEC.
• Saturday 7 November. Last day for Kcell to make materials available for its 17 November extraordinary meeting on merging KazNet Media into the operator, which the notice requires no later than 10 days before the meeting, according to the notice published on KASE.
• Monday 9 to Friday 27 November. The ITU Plenipotentiary Conference meets in Doha to elect the union's senior officials, the 48 members of its Council and the Radio Regulations Board for 2027 to 2030, according to an ITU media advisory.
• Wednesday 16 December. Approval date for the EBRD's proposed sovereign loan of up to EUR 48.4 million for Tajikistan's fibre backbone and rural broadband, listed as in exploratory status pending final review in the bank's project summary.
• Friday 25 December. Turkcell's second 5G licence instalment of USD 408 million falls due, with a third of the same size due by 2 May 2027, according to its annual report on Form 20-F.
• End of December. Kazakhstan aims to commission the 4,511 km West-East fibre line, half of which had been laid by 6 October, according to the government's session summary, and expects the main buildings at Data Center Valley to be erected by the same date, according to its review of 13 August.

Not yet dated in any document reviewed: commercial service on the Trans-Caspian cable, which Kazakhtelecom's chairman expects to be adjusted until the end of 2026, The Times of Central Asia reported, and an auction under the 5G spectrum caps proposed by Kazakhstan's competition agency on 14 October, BES.media reported.

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The committee, formally the Committee for the Development of Competition and Protection of Consumer Rights, said consumers had objected that the internet traffic included in tariff plans had been increased but a guaranteed level of service quality was not ensured, so the full allowance cannot always be used, unused traffic does not carry over to the next month and the rises are out of proportion to the extra traffic. The statement does not name the operators or give the size of the increases.

What the committee said it will do

If the review finds operator actions that are anti-competitive or discriminate against consumers' rights, an inspection will follow under the established procedure and, if the findings are confirmed, measures will be taken under existing law, the committee said. It gave no timetable.

The committee also listed instructions that it said it had sent in 2025 and the first nine months of 2026 and that operators had carried out:

• Beeline ended the practice of moving customers to a daily tariff plan without warning when the account lacked funds for the monthly fee, and made outgoing calls to more than 100 short-number hotlines of state bodies free of charge.
• Mobiuz removed technical limits on switching to some tariff plans and ensured that full tariff terms are shown to customers.
• Ucell revised its public offer for mobile services to add provisions on liability for material and moral damage.

The committee's weekly digest lists the statement under 9 October, and Kun.uz reported it the next day.

What one operator's notices show

Because the statement gives no figures, Corridor Signal compared two sets of published terms from Mobiuz, one of the three operators the committee names. These are not necessarily the increases the committee is examining. Mobiuz's notice of 9 February set terms for eight plans. Seven of them were changed again in notices of 2 September and 21 September, which describe the included data as increased and the subscription fee as changed. Monthly fees and allowances moved as follows.

• Xotirjam 40: from UZS 54,000 for 20 GB to UZS 60,000 for 25 GB.
• Kerakli 45: from UZS 55,000 for 40 GB to UZS 60,000 for 45 GB, with minutes up from 3,000 to 5,000 and SMS from 3,000 to 3,500.
• Mazza, the 3,900-minute plan: from UZS 53,000 for 110 GB to UZS 60,000 for 120 GB, split equally between day and night in both versions.
• Xotirjam 25: from UZS 50,000 for 40 GB to UZS 55,000 for 45 GB.
• Jozibali, Mobi 25 and Omad Plus: from UZS 50,000 for 50 GB to UZS 55,000 for 55 GB.

Fees rose by 9.1 per cent to 13.2 per cent and data allowances by 9.1 per cent to 25.0 per cent, by Corridor Signal's calculation. Dividing the fee by the allowance, a crude measure that ignores minutes and SMS, the implied price per gigabyte fell by 11.1 per cent on Xotirjam 40, by 3.0 per cent on Kerakli 45 and by 2.2 per cent on Xotirjam 25, was unchanged on the Jozibali group and rose by 3.8 per cent on Mazza. On these plans the headline price per gigabyte therefore moved little, which is a narrower question than the committee's complaint about quality and rollover. The comparison assumes that no other change notices for these plans appeared between 9 February and 2 September, and none was found in the operator's English-language news list as reviewed on 17 October.

Mobiuz has since launched two plans. ORZU, announced on 7 October, costs UZS 80,000 for unlimited calls, 150 GB, 5,000 SMS and unlimited access to four social and messaging apps. Barchaga Plus, announced on 14 October, costs UZS 45,000 for 3,000 minutes and 1,000 SMS, with data at UZS 100 per megabyte, or UZS 100,000 per gigabyte by Corridor Signal's calculation.

Prices and sector growth

For comparison, consumer prices rose 3.4 per cent in January to August and prices of services 4.7 per cent, according to the National Statistics Committee. The same release said information and communication services grew by 21.2 per cent on a year earlier in the period, contributing 1.6 percentage points to growth in market services. The statistics committee does not give a separate figure for mobile services, so the release cannot show how mobile prices or revenue moved.

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VEON announced the agreement a day earlier. Its release of 19 October puts the total consideration at about US$207 million, including about US$93 million of Perfectum's outstanding financial debt that VEON will assume, which leaves about US$114 million for the shares by Corridor Signal's calculation. The release said the relevant regulatory approvals had been obtained and that completion was expected by the end of October. It did not mention any conditions.

The committee, formally the Committee for the Development of Competition and Protection of Consumer Rights, said in the statement on its official Telegram channel that it had considered an application by VEON UZB Holding Ltd, a VEON group company registered in the United Arab Emirates, to buy 100 per cent of the shares of Rubicon Wireless Communication, the joint-stock company that provides mobile services under the Perfectum brand. VEON UZB Holding Ltd already owns 100 per cent of Unitel, the statement says. Unitel is the company behind the Beeline Uzbekistan brand, VEON says.

Seven conditions

The committee said its special commission had analysed the deal and that prior consent was given subject to conditions aimed at protecting competition. Translated and summarised by Corridor Signal, the conditions are to:

• keep Perfectum operating separately for at least three years and extend its 5G standalone technology to other regions;
• keep existing subscribers' 5G FWA tariffs for 12 months, create favourable terms for new subscribers and not let average internet speed fall below 300 Mbit/s;
• not impose on subscribers conditions unrelated to the subject of the contract, and not restrict their freedom to move to other mobile operators;
• not oblige subscribers to use digital platforms belonging to Beeline and the VEON group, and not restrict their use of competing services;
• not worsen service conditions without justification, and protect subscribers' rights;
• protect subscribers' personal and commercial data, not use it to restrict competition and not transfer it to foreign servers in breach of the law;
• comply with the Law on Competition and ensure a healthy competitive environment in the market.

The statement does not say from which date the 12-month and three-year periods run, whether the 300 Mbit/s floor covers the FWA service or the whole network, how compliance will be checked or what follows a breach. It gives no subscriber numbers or market shares for either operator, and VEON's release gives none for Perfectum.

What VEON says it is buying

VEON says Perfectum's assets include 115 MHz of spectrum across the 850 MHz and 3,800 MHz bands and a 5G standalone network deployed with Nokia equipment. VEON expects the deal to raise Beeline Uzbekistan's spectrum holdings by about 50 per cent, support its plans for 5G and fixed wireless access, and bring savings in capital and operating expenditure from integrating the two networks. It says the cash consideration will come from existing cash resources. These are the company's statements; the committee's statement refers to Perfectum's 5G standalone technology but gives no figures for its spectrum.

"Perfectum's spectrum complements our existing holdings and will support our plans to strengthen coverage and capacity, introduce 5G services and expand wireless broadband for homes and businesses," Yevgeniy Nastradin, CEO of Beeline Uzbekistan, said in the release. The reference to introducing 5G is consistent with Corridor Signal's reading of VEON's annual report, which found no 5G among Beeline's Uzbek licences. Kaan Terzioglu, Group Chief Executive Officer of VEON, called Uzbekistan "one of VEON's core growth markets".

A regulator already looking at tariffs

The conditions come while the committee examines whether recent mobile price increases were justified. In a statement on 9 October it said consumers objected that tariff rises were out of proportion to the extra internet traffic included in plans, and it listed instructions it had sent to Beeline, Mobiuz and Ucell during 2025 and the first nine months of 2026. Among them, Beeline ended the practice of moving customers to a daily tariff without warning when their balance could not cover the monthly fee. Corridor Signal's report on that review compared one operator's published fees.

VEON has scheduled results for the third quarter, which ended before the agreement was announced, for 6 November, according to a notice of 8 October. For the combined business, the committee's conditions set the first tests: the tariff hold for existing FWA customers and three years of separate operation for Perfectum.

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That was 6.5 per cent fewer than the 85,147 in the first quarter but 38.4 per cent more than the 57,501 a year earlier, by Corridor Signal's calculation from BTK's series. Internet service providers (ISPs) accounted for 41,046 complaints, or 51.6 per cent, the report says.

The complaints reached BTK through its online consumer complaint system. The second-quarter total is the first quarterly fall since the first quarter of 2025, in the series that BTK publishes.

Complaints by service and per subscriber

• Internet service providers: 41,046, up 80.8 per cent on the second quarter of 2025 and down 5.6 per cent on the first quarter of 2026.
• Mobile: 32,340, up 7.3 per cent on the year and down 6.6 per cent on the quarter.
• Fixed telephone: 2,826, up 10.2 per cent and down 14.2 per cent.
• Satellite platforms: 2,674, up 52.6 per cent and down 10.1 per cent.
• Cable TV: 700, up 111.5 per cent and down 7.3 per cent.

The year-on-year and quarterly changes are Corridor Signal's calculations from the figures in BTK's second-quarter and second-quarter 2025 reports.

BTK also reports complaints per million subscribers. In the second quarter the rate was 2,094 for ISPs, 679 for satellite platforms, 446 for cable TV, 372 for mobile and 348 for fixed telephone, the report says. Each was lower than in the first quarter, when the rates were 2,213, 748, 481, 403 and 398. A year earlier, in the second quarter of 2025, the ISP rate was 1,178 and the mobile rate was 313. BTK has calculated the mobile rate on real mobile users, excluding machine-to-machine lines, since the first quarter of 2026, so the mobile figures are not strictly comparable with earlier quarters.

What people complain about

In BTK's breakdown, connection and service quality was the largest ISP complaint, at 19,888, or 48.45 per cent of ISP complaints. Subscription transactions followed at 10,761, then billing at 2,928, relocation transactions at 1,698 and commitment, penalty and early termination charges at 1,449.

For mobile, billing led with 6,548 complaints, or 20.25 per cent of the mobile total, followed by coverage and service quality at 5,701, commitment and penalty charges at 3,416, subscription transactions at 2,566 and tariffs and campaigns at 2,374, BTK's breakdown shows. The first-quarter report's chart, which is low resolution, gives about 7,200 for billing, 4,800 for commitment and penalty charges and 4,300 for coverage and service quality. On those figures, billing complaints fell by about 9 per cent in the quarter and commitment charges by about 29 per cent, while coverage and service quality rose by about a third. The second quarter was the first in which 5G service was available, from 1 April, and BTK does not link the complaint figures to 5G.

The most-cited issue in the other services was billing for satellite platforms, at 25.17 per cent of their complaints, subscription transactions for fixed telephone, at 35.07 per cent, and connection and service quality for cable TV, at 35.86 per cent, the same report shows.

Steps that the reports do not explain

The series moved in steps. Mobile complaints rose from 19,087 in the first quarter of 2025 to 30,153 in the second, and ISP complaints rose from 22,700 to 38,005 in the third quarter, taking the total from 57,501 to 82,073. Since then the quarterly total has stayed between 79,586 and 85,147. The complaint sections of BTK's reports for those quarters list the numbers and topics but do not say what drove the increases, so they cannot be attributed to changes in operator conduct, in consumer awareness or in the way complaints are filed.

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The release links the rise to payments for the concession extension and the 5G licence. The two documents describe net debt differently. Turkcell's figure leaves out its payables to the Treasury, which include 5G licence fees, and Türk Telekom's release does not say whether its licence obligations are included.

The 5G licences entered commercial use on 1 April, Türk Telekom and Turkcell said. Vodafone Türkiye, the third licensee, is not covered here.

What the licences cost

The auction raised USD 2.95 billion, with Turkcell committing USD 1.22 billion, Türk Telekom about USD 1.1 billion and Vodafone Türkiye USD 627 million, MEA Tech Watch reported. Turkcell's filing puts its licence at USD 1.2 billion excluding VAT and says its authorisation runs to 31 December 2042.

Turkcell's total capex was TL 106.8 billion in the first half, about twice the TL 53.6 billion of a year earlier, the filing shows. Licence and related costs were TL 59.8 billion, against TL 0.3 billion, and operational capex, which excludes licence fees, was TL 33.6 billion, or 23.2 per cent of revenue.

Türk Telekom does not report a standalone 5G figure. Its first-half capex including solar investment, the concession extension and mobile licence fees was TL 189.6 billion, against TL 28.8 billion a year earlier, its release shows. Excluding those items it was TL 41.4 billion, or 29.1 per cent of revenue.

How the bills are carried

Turkcell's first-quarter cash outflows included USD 653 million, including VAT, for the first instalment of the licence and the wireless usage fee, the filing shows. Türk Telekom's unlevered free cash flow was minus TL 46.4 billion in the half, against plus TL 20.4 billion a year earlier, mainly because of the first instalment of the 5G licence fee and VAT payments on the licence and the concession extension. Excluding those payments it was TL 3.5 billion, the release says.

Turkcell's net debt was TL 44.5 billion, up from TL 17.5 billion at the end of 2025, the filing says, while Türk Telekom's was TL 122.4 billion, against TL 74.2 billion a year earlier, its release shows. Turkcell's consolidated debt rose to TL 212.1 billion from TL 186.8 billion, mainly because of a USD 1 billion Murabaha syndicated loan arranged in March.

Corridor Signal calculated that Turkcell's net debt equals that consolidated debt less cash of TL 89.3 billion and financial assets of TL 78.3 billion, using the balance sheet and Note 12 of the filing, and the same sum gives TL 17.5 billion for the end of 2025. A footnote says the calculation includes financial assets at fair value and at amortised cost. Türk Telekom's release says only that its net debt includes the mark-to-market value of currency swaps.

Amounts owed to the Treasury are not in that sum. Turkcell's payables to the Treasury and Finance Ministry, which include 5G licence payables, were TL 35.9 billion at 30 June, against TL 26.6 million at the end of 2025, and the filing reports them within amounts due to related parties rather than borrowings. Türk Telekom's net short currency position of USD 2.4 billion includes USD 2.8 billion of concession and mobile licence obligations. Without them it would be long USD 331 million, its release says.

Earnings, guidance and sector spending

Türk Telekom's depreciation and amortisation rose 25.8 per cent to TL 16.8 billion in the second quarter, and net financial expense rose 91.6 per cent to TL 19.3 billion, mainly on foreign-exchange losses on the concession extension and 5G licence obligations and on hedging costs, its release says. Turkcell's depreciation and amortisation rose 9.1 per cent to TL 20.6 billion on its 5G investments and licence, and its margin fell to 41.8 per cent from 43.5 per cent, which it attributes to marketing spending after the launch and the mix of corporate projects, the filing says.

Türk Telekom's mobile ARPU excluding M2M fell 5.9 per cent in the quarter, and it expects ARPU growth to turn positive in the second half. It expects revenue growth of about 8 per cent, the lower end of its range, and capex intensity of about 34 per cent, the upper end, the release says. Turkcell expects pricing actions to support ARPU growth, particularly from the end of the fourth quarter, and maintained guidance of 5 to 7 per cent real revenue growth and an EBITDA margin of 40 to 42 per cent, its filing says.

Across the sector, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said second-quarter investment rose 86.9 per cent year on year to TL 55.6 billion, Anadolu Agency reported. BTK's first-quarter report, which counts the 5G tender prices as investment, put spending by TT Mobil, Turkcell, Türk Telekom and Vodafone at about TL 255 billion, against TL 15.7 billion a year earlier. With TL 7.9 billion from other operators, the first-quarter total was about TL 263 billion, and the second-quarter figure is about a fifth of that, by Corridor Signal's calculation.

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The operator, Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S., was responding to press reports that day that it and the fund were discussing the acquisition of certain shares of Türkiye'nin Otomobili Girisim Grubu, the carmaker known as TOGG.

The statement does not say which side would buy or sell, how many shares are involved, or at what price. It says only that, within its investment strategies, the company "may engage in discussions regarding its portfolio of subsidiaries". No later filing in Turkcell's SEC record to 9 October updates the talks.

On 24 September Turkcell's board resolved to increase the capital of its Belarusian subsidiary, CJSC Belarusian Telecommunications Network (BeST), by $7 million or the equivalent in foreign currency, according to a filing. The first instalment of $5 million is due in October 2026 and the second, of $2 million, in December. The filing does not say what the money will be used for.

The company also changed its sales leadership. Chief Sales Officer Kadri Özdal resigned effective 8 September, and Metin Tugtag, general manager of the Turkcell Global Bilgi call-centre and customer services subsidiary, was appointed in his place from 9 September, a filing of 8 September shows. A Form 3 filed on 15 September lists Muhammed Rasid Ünal as general manager of Global Bilgi, with an effective date of 9 September, and reports no holdings of Turkcell securities.

None of the September filings sets a date for Turkcell's third-quarter results, and none quantifies the effect of the BeST capital increase or the TOGG talks on group accounts. Turkcell's financing filings in the same weeks included the redemption on 25 September of a TRY 500 million financing bond and the sale of a TRY 500 million 91-day bill on 9 October, at a simple annual rate of 37 per cent.

The third-quarter results announcement is the next document likely to show the outcome of the TOGG discussions, if any has been reached.

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The sector's total contribution to the state budget was GEL 643,842,117, about GEL 150 million more than in the previous year, the statement says. Electronic communications undertakings accounted for GEL 470,768,047 and licensing revenue for GEL 125,816,349. Broadcasters paid GEL 47,200,867 in taxes, and administrative fines came to GEL 56,854. The statement does not say how much of the licensing line came from 5G spectrum. ComCom's notice of the 2025 auction shows that Silknet must pay 30 per cent of its fee before receiving a licence and the remaining 70 per cent within a year of issue, so receipts from a single auction can fall in more than one calendar year.

Mobile market

Georgia had 6.43 million mobile subscriptions, of which 4.75 million were individual and 1.68 million were business, according to the ComCom statement. By subscribers, Magticom held 41 per cent, Silknet 36 per cent and Cellfie Mobile 23 per cent. The mobile virtual network operator Eclectic held 0.4 per cent.

Magticom and Silknet together therefore account for 77 per cent of subscriptions. When Cellfie Mobile won the first 5G auction in August 2023, ComCom described the two larger operators as holding over 70 per cent of the Georgian telecom market. That earlier description did not specify the measure, so the two figures are not strictly comparable.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) was GEL 14.8, and the statement gives no period. Mobile internet users numbered 5.1 million, about 500,000 more than a year earlier, and their five-year average annual growth was 8.2 per cent, the statement says. The 5.1 million users equal about 79 per cent of the 6.43 million subscriptions, although the statement does not define an internet user and the two counts may not be on the same basis.

ComCom's report to Parliament says 5G became available to subscribers of all three mobile operators in 2025. Silknet won the third 5G auction in June 2025, after Cellfie Mobile and Magticom had launched. The published statements do not attach subscriber or revenue figures to 5G.

Fixed broadband

Fixed broadband subscribers rose by 54,000 to 1.212 million, according to the statement, an increase of about 4.7 per cent on the implied 2024 base. Household penetration of fixed broadband stood at 95.8 per cent. Fixed internet reached 2,583 of Georgia's 3,385 villages, about 76 per cent, which leaves 802 villages without a fixed connection on ComCom's figures.

ComCom reported separately on the state-backed fibre programme. According to its account of the 2025 internetisation results, backbone construction was complete on 575 km of routes, and 1,050 km serving about 200 settlements was under construction.

Broadcasting and gaps in the data

The report also covers broadcasting. There were 803,000 broadcast transmission subscribers, and IPTV accounted for 87 per cent of them, the statement says. ComCom counted 108 authorised TV channels and 21 national free-to-air TV broadcasters. Broadcaster advertising revenue was GEL 109 million, of which GEL 100 million came from television.

The statement does not give fibre subscription counts, data traffic, tariff trends or revenue by operator, and it does not report network investment. Without those, the 2025 revenue growth of about 7 per cent cannot be split between price, volume and new services. Operator-level reporting would be needed to do that.

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The change comes while VEON, the Dubai-headquartered operator that says it serves more than 150 million connectivity customers in five countries, is buying back 3.9 per cent of its shares. In the corridor VEON owns Beeline Kazakhstan, which serves 11.7 million mobile customers and around one million fixed internet customers, according to a VEON release of 15 September. VEON announced on 23 September a programme to repurchase 72.5 million shares, worth about $200 million at the closing price of $69.37 per ADS on 22 September, and said it will cancel every share acquired, according to the press release furnished to the SEC. Neither Shah filing reports a sale of ADSs, and neither gives a figure for the holding before 16 October.

What the Shah filings say

The amendment attributes the change to a restructuring: a family office, Himanshu Shah Family Office LLC, has been set up to manage the investments of the Shah family, and Shah Capital Fund LLC, which holds 2,790,960 ADSs, or 4.06 per cent, has become part of that structure. Shah Capital Management is deemed to beneficially own 4,575,667 ADSs, or 6.65 per cent, held across the fund and managed accounts, and Himanshu Shah holds a further 44,608 ADSs directly, the 13D amendment shows. The reporting persons said they had "no present plans or proposals" that would result in any of the actions listed in Item 4 of the form.

The percentages are calculated on 68.8 million shares outstanding, the amendment states, a base that matches the number of ADSs rather than VEON's common shares. LetterOne's own filing uses a base of 1,849,190,667 common shares. Each ADS represents 25 common shares, according to the VEON release, and the Shah filings do not reconcile the two bases.

How the buyback works

VEON's programme combines open-market purchases of ADSs with direct purchases from LetterOne, its largest shareholder. Under a share purchase agreement signed on 24 September, LetterOne's holding company LPE Middle East Limited will sell VEON 32,957,830 shares, while 39,542,170 shares are to be bought in the market as ADSs, according to LetterOne's Schedule 13D amendment of 25 September. After each market tranche, LPE sells a matching proportion of its allocation at the weighted average price VEON paid for the ADSs in that tranche, divided by 25. Each tranche requires VEON's board to approve the cancellation of the shares.

The same filing puts LPE's holding at 840,625,000 shares, or 45.46 per cent of the voting capital, and LetterOne's allocation is 45.46 per cent of the 72.5 million shares to be bought. If the programme completes in full, LPE would hold 807,667,170 of 1,776,690,667 shares, still about 45.46 per cent, on Backhaul's arithmetic from the filing's figures. The agreement does not commit LetterOne to take part in any later or enlarged programme, the filing states.

VEON said the new programme represents 27.5 per cent of its trailing twelve-month equity free cash flow, after leases and licences, for the period to 30 June, and that it replaces the minimum annual buyback target of $100 million set in May 2025. Since August 2024 VEON has repurchased 4.46 million ADSs, 6.0 per cent of the ADSs outstanding, for $227.6 million, and shares and ADSs held by the company represent about 7.9 per cent of the total outstanding, according to the release.

What the documents do not say

VEON's release gives no end date for the programme and says the first phase of open-market purchases is under way without saying how many ADSs have been bought. No filing in VEON's SEC record between 23 September and 16 October reports a completed tranche or a board resolution to cancel shares. The release does not say how the buyback interacts with spending in the operating markets, and the Shah filings say nothing about VEON's business.

VEON's third-quarter results, due on 6 November according to a company announcement, are the next document likely to show how many shares the programme has bought and cancelled.

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Total information and communication services came to AZN 3.2571 billion, up 11.1 per cent in real terms, the Report.az account says. Software development and related consulting accounted for AZN 558.8 million, up 32.2 per cent, and information services for AZN 384.7 million, up 8.6 per cent. Other information and communication services were AZN 802.2 million, up 4.3 per cent. The report does not give a separate figure for fixed-line services.

Mobile and internet compared

The five segments add up to the AZN 3.2571 billion total. On those figures mobile accounts for about 30 per cent of the total, and internet services for 16.1 per cent, the share given in the report. Internet revenue is growing about six and a half times as fast as mobile revenue.

The report does not say whether the segment growth rates are nominal or real; only the headline total is described as real. If both segment rates refer to current prices, the implied base for the first nine months of 2025 is about AZN 956 million for mobile and about AZN 432 million for internet, which would mean internet services added roughly AZN 93 million against about AZN 32 million for mobile. This is a calculation from the published rates, not a figure reported by the Committee, and it depends on the rates being nominal.

None of the reports reviewed gives mobile subscriber numbers, data traffic, tariffs or revenue by operator. The data therefore cannot show whether slower growth in mobile revenue reflects fewer subscribers, lower prices or a shift of usage towards data and messaging services, and the Committee's release would need to be read for any further detail.

Output and investment

Further Committee data reported on 16 October put output of the ICT sector at AZN 2.057 billion for the nine months, up 11.1 per cent on the year, according to Report.az. September alone was AZN 282.3 million, up 30.6 per cent. The sector accounted for 2 per cent of gross domestic product, which rose 1.5 per cent to AZN 102.048 billion. The report does not say how the sector output figure relates to the AZN 3.2571 billion of services above, and it does not define either measure.

Investment in the ICT sector was AZN 376.5 million in the nine months, up 57.3 per cent, equal to 2.6 per cent of the economy's total capital investment, Report.az reported. The nine-month figure already exceeds the AZN 373.6 million recorded for the whole of 2025, which Report.az said was 46.7 per cent lower than in 2024. No breakdown between telecom networks, software and other activities was given, so the data cannot show how much went into mobile or fixed networks.

Pay and the regulatory framework

Average monthly nominal pay in the information and communication sector was AZN 2,130.2 in January to August, up 12.7 per cent, according to Report.az. Public-sector pay averaged AZN 1,908.6, up 18.6 per cent, and private-sector pay AZN 2,260.9, up 8.5 per cent. The sector had 34,100 hired employees as of 1 September, down 0.3 per cent on a year earlier.

On 15 October Report.az said President Ilham Aliyev had signed a decree establishing a Digital Connectivity information system. The report says the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport owns the system and the Information and Communication Technologies Agency, which reports to the ministry, operates it. Its stated purpose is to make regulation and oversight of information and communication technologies, including telecommunications and postal services, more efficient and transparent. No deadlines or figures were given.

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The notice is two sentences long. It does not say how many customers are affected, whether cables, equipment or contracts are being sold or transferred, whether Tojiktelecom pays anything, or whether tariffs and contract terms change for the customers concerned. It describes Tojiktelecom as a partner and gives no reason for the timing. MegaFon's news page carries no fuller statement.

A mobile operator without a fixed arm

The handover leaves MegaFon Tajikistan as a mobile business. In a review marking its 25th anniversary on 3 September, the operator said it had more than 2 million subscribers, which it described as roughly one in five inhabitants. It said its network comprised about 1,860 base station sites, of which about 1,550, or more than 80 per cent, support 4G, and that its own fibre-optic network linking cities and regions exceeds 2,600 km.

The same review puts the operator's coverage at 87.2 per cent of the population, with 85.4 per cent able to use 4G, and says it has invested $290.5 million in infrastructure since 2012. It says the company employs 770 people. Founded in September 2001 with a few base stations in Dushanbe, it launched 3G four years later and began testing 4G in 2011, the review says. The review does not give revenue, profit or market share, and does not say how many of the 2 million subscribers are active.

The review gives no figures for the fixed broadband business, and does not say how much of the fibre serves homes rather than the backbone. It highlights instead eSIM, VoLTE and the operator's MegaFon Life app, which it describes as a super app that handles account management, money transfers, air tickets and car insurance, and prepaid plans covering three, six or nine months.

Other changes to terms

The operator has made other changes to how it charges for and carries traffic. From 18 September, the rounding threshold for mobile internet sessions became 200 KB, according to a notice of 8 September, which does not give the previous threshold. On 15 October the operator said more than 700,000 subscribers were using voice over LTE (VoLTE) and about 800,000 more had handsets that support it, putting the service within reach of 1.5 million subscribers, according to a company release. The release says MegaFon Tajikistan launched VoLTE in 2022.

The VoLTE figure gives a rough sense of how far the base has moved to 4G handsets: on the operator's own numbers, about 35 per cent of its more than 2 million subscribers already use VoLTE, on Backhaul's arithmetic. Because the subscriber figure is a floor, the true share is likely lower.

What comes next

The fixed-line transfer takes effect on 19 October. Backhaul found no decision on the change on the Telegram channel of Tajikistan's Communication Service, the regulator, and the notice does not say whether licences move with the customers. At the International Telecommunication Union's regional forum in Dushanbe on 29 and 30 September, the Communication Service's chairman cited the country's Communications Sector Development Strategy to 2040 and a Digital Village initiative, according to the ITU's draft outcome report; neither mentions fixed broadband consolidation.

The next document to watch for is any statement from Tojiktelecom setting out the terms for the customers it takes on.

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The release says Viva launched 5G+ in July 2026 in Yerevan and in cities in Shirak, Lori, Tavush, Gegharkunik, Kotayk and Aragatsotn. Its headline puts the total at Yerevan and 32 cities across eight regions, but the text does not list all 32. Viva reported a speed test in Goris of 522 Mbps download and 91.24 Mbps upload. The test was run by the company, and the release does not describe the method or the device.

General Director Armen Avetisian said: "Trust is earned not through statements, but through consistently high-quality connectivity." Viva also notes that Ookla's Speedtest named it the operator of Armenia's fastest mobile network for the first half of 2026, an award announced in July.

What the release does not say

The release does not define 5G+, name the frequency bands in use, give a number of base stations or report coverage as a share of the population. Viva's separate 5G+ page calls it "the one and only 5G+ network in Armenia", states that a USIM or eSIM is needed, and links to a list of settlements dated October 2026, but it does not say whether the network runs on standalone or non-standalone architecture.

On spectrum, the release says Viva made what it calls the largest investment in Armenian history to acquire radio frequencies, which doubled its previous frequency resources. It gives no amount and does not say which licence it refers to.

The coverage claim is also on a different basis from a competitor's. In November 2025 Ucom said 5G was available in 47 cities and that more than 94 per cent of the population had access to it, according to ARKA Telecom. Viva's "about 80 per cent of inhabited areas" measures areas rather than people, so the two figures cannot be compared directly.

Licence obligations

The only published spectrum purchase by Viva in the sources reviewed dates from April 2025. Decisions of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) dated 2 April 2025 gave Viva Armenia a 10-year licence for 2300 to 2350 MHz and 2350 to 2400 MHz, for which it paid AMD 2.5 billion to the state budget, ARKA reported, citing the Ministry of High Technologies Industry. The licence carries phased 5G obligations:

• Within three years, outdoor mobile broadband on at least 98 per cent of interstate highways, with at least 10 per cent on 5G.
• Within three years, 5G outdoor coverage of at least 20 per cent of the administrative territory of Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor and Kapan.
• Within five years, at least 40 per cent of the territory of each of those four cities.
• Within seven years, 5G outdoor coverage of at least 60 per cent of the administrative territory of every urban settlement in Armenia.

The 13 October expansion therefore reaches Kapan, one of the four cities named in the early targets. The release does not say how much of Kapan's territory is covered, or whether the 5G+ network runs on the 2300 to 2400 MHz band, so it cannot be checked against the 20 per cent milestone. ARKA's report does not say when the three-year period starts.

Viva's payment of AMD 2.5 billion can be set against an earlier state estimate. In November 2024 a deputy minister told a parliamentary committee that the state could earn at least AMD 7.5 billion in one-time income from competitive allocation of the 2.3 to 2.4 GHz and 3.6 to 3.8 GHz bands, plus about AMD 5.4 billion a year in usage fees, ARKA reported. The reports reviewed do not show how the two amounts relate, because the estimate covers two bands and the payment covers the 2300 to 2400 MHz band.

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According to the meeting information filed with the notice, the meeting will start at 11:00 Almaty time at 51 Alimzhanova Street in Almaty, in person only, with registration from 10:00 to 10:45. If it does not take place, it moves to 18 November at the same time. The merger is the only item on the agenda.

Shareholders recorded in the register held by the Central Securities Depository at 00:00 Almaty time on 19 October are entitled to attend and vote. Meeting materials are due at least 10 days before the meeting, which would be 7 November for the first date, and shareholders can request them by email with documents confirming their status. Kcell says it sends requested materials within three working days.

What the notice does not say

The notice gives no rationale for the merger. It also omits the terms, any share exchange ratio, the ownership structure of KazNet Media, financial figures for either company, regulatory approvals and the voting threshold needed to pass the resolution, according to the filed document. The notice says only that agenda materials will be available at least 10 days before the meeting.

Kcell describes itself in the notice as a digital telecommunications provider offering mobile, fixed-line (FMC), data, internet, financial, digital, IoT and B2B services under the Kcell and activ brands. The notice states that its 5G network covers 64.29 per cent of Kazakhstan's population.

Recent results

The company reported first-half 2026 results on 7 August. Revenue rose 10.8 per cent to KZT 138.4 billion, EBITDA rose 13.0 per cent to KZT 53.8 billion, a margin of 38.9 per cent, and net profit rose 40.5 per cent to KZT 7.9 billion, according to its KASE announcement. Subscribers grew 11.2 per cent to 9.05 million, and capital expenditure exceeded KZT 32 billion.

Neither the first-half results release nor the full-year 2025 results release mentions KazNet Media, so the notice is the first reference to the company in the Kcell filings reviewed. The agenda materials, due by 7 November, are the next place where terms could appear, ahead of the shareholders' vote.

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• Monday 19 October. Kcell's shareholder register is fixed at 00:00 Almaty time for an extraordinary meeting on 17 November at 11:00 in Almaty, which has a single item: the merger of KazNet Media JSC into Kcell. If that meeting does not take place, it moves to 18 November, according to the notice published on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange.
• Friday 23 October. Nvidia founder and chief executive Jensen Huang is scheduled to visit Astana for a fireside chat with Zhaslan Madiyev, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, The Times of Central Asia reported, citing a ministry notice. In June the government announced a $10 billion package of agreements with Firebird for a GPU cluster at Data Center Valley in Ekibastuz.
• Friday 6 November. VEON reports results for the quarter to 30 September, the company said. The quarter includes the 29 September launch of Starlink's satellite-to-mobile service by its unit Beeline Kazakhstan.
• Monday 9 to Friday 27 November. The ITU Plenipotentiary Conference meets at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center. Member states elect the Secretary-General, the Deputy Secretary-General and the directors of the three bureaux, and choose the 48 members of the ITU Council and the members of the Radio Regulations Board for 2027 to 2030, according to an ITU media advisory.
• Monday 16 November. VEON holds its Capital Markets Day, with details on attendance to follow, according to the same announcement.
• End of December. The Kazakh government expects the main data centre and energy buildings at Data Center Valley to be erected by the end of the year, with commissioning works finished in May 2027 and a first 50 MW facility in operation in June 2027, according to its review of the project on 13 August.

For the Caspian line itself, no date for commercial service appears in the documents reviewed. The Kazakh government said in August that ground infrastructure and system testing were due to be completed in the autumn, Silk Way TV reported.

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