Contributor Desk
The Corridor Signal Contributor Desk writes explainers and analysis. Analysis is labelled as analysis. Outside contributors are named on the piece when they write under their own name.
Columns on this desk: Dark Fibre.
Stories
Cables and SatellitesExplainer
Kazakhstan's ministries name SES for an Air Astana jet, Starlink for trains
Official texts tie SES to one Air Astana jet and Starlink to 59 trains, schools and phones; orbits, licences and contracts are largely unstated.
NetworksAnalysis
Kazakhstan's papers give three 2026 targets for village internet
Papers of October 2025, January 2026 and October 2026 give 3,000, 1.9 thousand and 1,600 villages for 2026, and do not say how the figures fit.
Policy and SpectrumExplainer
ADB's $20bn Digital Highway targets landlocked connectivity costs
ADB promises first-time broadband for 200 million people and a cost cut of about 40 per cent in remote and landlocked areas, but names no recipient state.
Deals and MarketsAnalysis
EBRD lessons call open access non-negotiable as Tajikistan loan nears board
The digital approach and telecom strategy signal what Tajikistan's €48.38 million backbone loan is likely to be judged against at the board on 16 December.
Data CentresExplainer
Azerbaijan's data centre plans: what officials have said and what documents show
A deputy minister says talks on an Alat data centre are in their final stage; the public record gives no capacity, investor or date.
Policy and SpectrumExplainer
Trans-Caspian corridor, part 5: the rules on the seabed and on each shore
A 2018 treaty lets the littoral states lay cables on the seabed; the price of capacity is set on the shores, and only Georgia's regulator is reviewing IP transit.
Cables and SatellitesExplainer
Kazakhstan's Starlink terms, and its plan to serve neighbours through local gateways
Official documents trace a school pilot, a 2025 compliance agreement and a direct-to-phone launch, but not the licence conditions that may now matter beyond Kazakhstan.
Cables and SatellitesExplainer
Türkiye has not authorised LEO satellite broadband, and Turkcell lists a change as a risk
Turkcell's 20-F says LEO internet needs legislative approval in Türkiye and could substitute for its services. Kazakhstan took the opposite route in 2025.
Policy and SpectrumExplainer
Georgia took three auctions and five years to get 5G to all three operators
ComCom's releases show how an optional duty to open networks to virtual operators shaped who bid, when, and at what fee, from 2023 to 2025.
Cables and SatellitesExplainer
Trans-Caspian corridor, part 4: the transit market the cable enters, and its prices
Kazakhstan's main carrier lists 1.5 Tbit/s of transit channels set up in 2024 and a revised price list; neither that list nor a Caspian tariff is public.
NetworksExplainer
Kazakhstan has drawn 0.33 per cent of its World Bank rural broadband loan
The DARE loan pays ISPs up to US$500,000 per sub-project; three grant rounds have been launched, and its dollar value has fallen to US$80.95 million.
OperatorsAnalysis
M2M lines drove most of TT Mobil's subscriber gain in Türkiye
BTK data show TT Mobil added 4.2 million subscriptions in a year, 73 per cent of the market total, and Türk Telekom puts its M2M gain at 3.2 million.
Cables and SatellitesAnalysis
Türksat's deals span satellites, a data centre and China, few terms public
Releases and reports from March to October give no investment figures, capacity splits or launch dates, and the Gölbaşı campus is rated at 33 MVA, not MW.
Data CentresAnalysis
Kazakhstan's 295 MW data centre plan meets KEGOC's demand response pilot
KEGOC forecasts a winter peak of 18,200 MW, 480 MW above last year, while the government plans 186 MW of data centres in 2027 and 109 MW in 2028.
NetworksAnalysis
Kyrgyz digital project beat fibre targets, missed private investment goal
The World Bank report counts 58,899 km of national fibre but US$2.01 million of qualifying private money, against an original target of US$60 million.
Cables and SatellitesAnalysis
Kazakhstan left broadband off KazSat-3R on cost grounds
A government reply put an expanded Ku- and Ka-band payload at 153 billion tenge, and in October Starlink and OneWeb moved to commercial licences.
OperatorsAnalysis
Türk Telekom's net debt is 1.00x EBITDA after 5G payments, Turkcell's 0.36x
Half-year filings describe net debt differently, and Turkcell's reported figure leaves out TL 35.9 billion of Treasury payables, including 5G fees.
Cables and SatellitesExplainer
Trans-Caspian corridor, part 3: who will sell the cable's capacity
The 380 km Aktau to Sumgayit line is run by a joint venture and built with operators' own money. Price, lit capacity and access terms are not in the launch documents.
Cables and SatellitesExplainer
Trans-Caspian corridor, part 2: the landing points and the links beyond them
The documents name Aktau and Sumgayit as the cable's ends but no landing station, and the path west of the Caspian runs through Georgia with no published route.
Policy and SpectrumExplainer
Northern Cyprus 5G runs to a licence timetable: 4G spectrum from 2026, full bands in 2028
Turkcell's filing shows Kıbrıs Telekom bought 247 MHz for US$19.1 million in 2022, with staged 5G dates as Türkiye-backed fibre arrives on the island.
Cables and SatellitesExplainer
Trans-Caspian corridor, part 1: the route from Aktau to Sumgayit and beyond
The first fibre line across the Caspian runs about 380 km between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, and officials describe a path on to Europe through Georgia.
Policy and SpectrumExplainer
Türkiye's 5G licences set coverage, speed and local-content duties on dates to 2042
Turkcell's 20-F sets out the timetable: village coverage by 2028, a 60% local-procurement floor and a 5% levy from 2029, and regional speed targets after that.
Policy and SpectrumExplainer
Beeline's licences in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan list no 5G, VEON's annual report shows
The 20-F sets out a Kazakh spectrum history that stops in 2016 and Uzbek licences that run to 2031, while rival operators carry the 5G build.
