Kazakhstan's 5G deadline passed with Kcell covering 53.5% of the population

In June 2024 Kazakhstan's government set the end of 2025 as the date by which the introduction of 5G should be complete, citing an instruction from the head of state, according to a government release of 18 June 2024. At the time 1,144 5G base stations were working in 20 cities, and Kcell and Tele2 were to continue extending 5G coverage in Astana, Almaty, Shymkent and the regional centres. The largest operator's own reports now show where the deadline left the network. Kcell's 5G signal reached 53.54 per cent of the population at the end of 2025 and 64.29 per cent at the end of June 2026, according to its full-year release and its first-half release.

The 5G record, from target to build

Method: the first four rows come from two releases of the Government of Kazakhstan, the June 2024 statement in Russian, translated by Corridor Signal, and a July 2025 statement in English. The remaining rows come from Kcell's results releases filed on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange for the full year 2025 and the first half of 2026. Kcell figures are the operator's own and cover only its network.

What the deadline measured

The 2024 statement framed the target in terms of cities rather than population coverage. It described the next stage as extending 5G in the three largest cities and the regional centres. By that measure the deadline appears to have been met: in April 2026 the ministry said 5G base stations were working in all cities of national significance and 17 regional centres, with smaller single-industry towns to follow in 2026, the Astana Times reported, citing the state news agency Kazinform.

The same 2024 statement listed the obstacles the ministry wanted removed to speed the build: limits on base-station radio emissions that it described as 10 to 20 times stricter than in developed countries, restrictions on placing base stations on state buildings, and master plans for towns and cities that did not yet provide for telecom networks, according to the release.

Population coverage tells a slower story. On Kcell's figures, a little over half of Kazakhstan's population could reach its 5G network when the deadline passed, and just under two-thirds six months later. The gain of 10.75 percentage points in the first half of 2026, a Corridor Signal calculation from the two releases, came as Kcell added more than 650 base stations in the period, more than half of them 5G-capable, according to the first-half release.

The operator's counts also need care. At the end of 2025 Kcell reported 1,762 5G base stations, including 818 sites deployed under a network-sharing agreement, and a footprint of 2,586 locations, according to the full-year release. The first-half release gives a single figure, 3,034 base stations, without the split. The two are not necessarily on the same basis, and the releases do not name the sharing partner.

Who paid, and what comes next

Kcell spent KZT 102.8 billion on capital expenditure in 2025 and more than KZT 32 billion in the first half of 2026, its releases show. The full-year release says the company is replacing higher-cost debt with financing from development institutions, including a credit line from the Development Bank of Kazakhstan secured in 2025. The government expected mobile operators to invest more than KZT 450 billion in the sector by the end of 2027, according to the 2024 release, and in July 2025 the digital development minister put total investment in information and communication technology at about KZT 1.3 trillion for 2025 to 2030, according to a government statement.

The next dates are in 2027. The government's target is 99 per cent mobile coverage by 2027, including along 40,000 km of national and regional highways, according to the same July 2025 statement. The ministry plans at least 3,527 5G base stations by the end of 2027, the Astana Times reported in April. Kcell alone reported 3,034 at the end of June 2026. The government's summary of 6 October says more than 4,000 5G base stations have been installed in more than 20 cities, already above the 3,527 planned for the end of 2027, according to the government.

Demand is moving in the same direction. Devices that support 5G made up 34.6 per cent of those on Kcell's network at the end of 2025, according to the full-year release, and 5G-enabled devices accounted for 39.6 per cent of network traffic in the first half of 2026, according to the first-half release.