Kazakhstan has connected 370 of 1,600 villages planned for 2026, government data show

Kazakhstan had connected 370 villages under its rural connectivity programme in 2026 by early October, against a plan of 1,600 villages for the year, and had laid 11,819 km of communication lines, according to the government's summary of a 6 October session on its digital strategy, which reported figures presented by Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev. On those figures the programme had reached about 23 per cent of its annual village target with less than three months of the year left.

Meeting the plan would require about 1,230 more villages to be connected by 31 December, more than three times the number reported for the year so far. The summary does not give a monthly breakdown, a list of villages or a total for 2025.

The figures

• Villages connected in 2026, as reported on 6 October: 370, against a plan of 1,600 for the year, or 23.1 per cent (government summary).
• Communication lines laid in 2026: 11,819 km (same summary).
• Villages in Kazakhstan: about 6,179, of which 42 per cent were covered by high-speed data transmission technologies in July 2025 (government release, 4 July 2025).
• Fibre programme target: internet access for 3,781 villages by the end of 2027, more than 160,000 km added to the network and coverage raised to 90 per cent (same release).
• Satellite: 328 more remote settlements to be connected by the end of 2025, with investment in this area above 38.6 billion tenge and OneWeb, Starlink, Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology and Amazon Kuiper named as partners (same release).
• Schools: 3,998 of 7,866 general education schools connected to fibre in 2024, or 51 per cent, up from 46 per cent (Kazakhtelecom 2024 annual report).

How the targets fit together

The 2026 comparison is direct: the plan of 1,600 villages and the 370 connected appear in the same document and refer to the same year, which is the basis of the 23 per cent figure. Lines laid are not a measure of completed connections. The summary does not say how much of the 11,819 km serves villages already connected, so the Data Desk does not divide one figure by the other.

The July 2025 figures do not reconcile on their face. Coverage of 42 per cent of about 6,179 villages implies about 2,600 villages with high-speed service; adding 3,781 would exceed the total. The release does not say how many of the 3,781 already had some form of high-speed access, or whether the 90 per cent refers to villages or to people. The Data Desk therefore treats 3,781 as the scope of the fibre programme rather than as a count of villages without service, and does not calculate cumulative progress against it, because no 2025 total appears in the documents reviewed.

The Times of Central Asia, in an article published this month that draws on an interview with Madiyev, reported that Kazakhstan aims to connect more than 90 per cent of villages by fibre within roughly a year and a half to two years, with satellite services covering the remainder. On mobile networks, the government expected in July 2025 that coverage would reach 99 per cent nationwide by 2027 (July 2025 release), and its 6 October summary plans coverage along 40,000 km of regional and national highways in 2027, with more than 500 antenna-mast structures (6 October summary).

Method

Figures are taken as published in two government releases, of 4 July 2025 and 6 October 2026, and in Kazakhtelecom's 2024 annual report, all linked above. Percentages and differences are Data Desk calculations: 370 divided by 1,600 gives 23.1 per cent, and 1,600 minus 370 gives 1,230. "This year" in the October summary is read as calendar 2026. The connection counts are the government's own and could not be checked against an independent list of villages.