Kazakhstan's papers give three 2026 targets for village internet

Kazakhstan's government said in October 2025 that 2,606 of its 6,179 villages were on main fibre lines and that it planned to connect more than 3,000 more by the end of 2026, in a report by Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev to a government session.

Two later papers give other numbers for 2026. A summary of a government session on 6 January 2026 plans an additional 1.9 thousand villages for the year, and Corridor Signal has reported 370 villages connected in 2026 against a plan of 1,600, from the government's summary of a 6 October session. With about two months of 2026 left, this analysis sets the three plans side by side and lists what the papers do not say.

What was announced and what exists

The papers of 21 October 2025 are the Deputy Prime Minister's report and a government summary of the session chaired by Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov. The January summary is of a session that Bektenov also chaired, with Madiyev among the speakers. Corridor Signal read the English-language texts; it could not open the Kazakh-language version of the October report, which may carry figures that the English text does not. The percentages below are Corridor Signal's calculation.

A main line reaches a village; a local network takes fibre to homes. In the English text of the October report the first stage is a count and the second only a target, so the papers reviewed contain no count of villages where households can already connect. The January summary says only "high-speed internet access" and does not say which technology its 2.6 thousand and 1.9 thousand count. The 323 billion tenge for the period to the end of 2027 is not itemised in the papers reviewed; divided by 4,786 villages it is about 67 million tenge a village, an average and not a unit cost.

Three places where the figures need care

First, the year-end count matches October. The January summary says high-speed internet access had been provided to 2.6 thousand rural settlements by the end of 2025, close to the 2,606 reported on 21 October. If both count the same thing, few villages joined in the 71 days from 21 October to 31 December 2025, so a goal of more than 3,000 by the end of 2026 would have to be met almost wholly in 2026.

Second, the plan for 2026 appears three times. Meeting the October 2025 goal would put at least 5,606 villages on main lines, or 90.7 per cent of 6,179, which fits the 90 per cent in the session summary. The January plan of 1.9 thousand villages would take the count from 2,606 to about 4,506, or 72.9 per cent, and the October 2026 plan of 1,600 to 4,206, or 68.1 per cent. The January plan is about 300 villages above the October one, and the October plan is at least 1,400 below the 3,000. Each could count a different stage, or a plan may have changed, and none of the papers reviewed says which. A second page of the January session says that in the current and coming years more than 3,000 villages will be provided with high-speed internet through fibre lines, a wider window than the end of 2026.

Third, 90 per cent has two dates. The October session summary ties it to the end of 2026. The Deputy Prime Minister's report ties fibre lines to 90 per cent of rural settlements to the end of 2027, under the national project Affordable Internet, and says the same measures will leave more than 90 per cent of villages with high-speed internet by wired means. Ninety per cent of 6,179 villages is about 5,560, roughly 775 more than the 4,786 with household networks, and the papers do not say how those villages would be served. Corridor Signal also reported a programme figure of 3,781 villages with fibre by 2027 from a July 2025 government release, in the same report; the 4,786 are 1,005, or 26.6 per cent, more, and the papers do not say whether the two count the same thing. Corridor Signal reported that the World Bank's appraisal for its DARE project counts 1,214 villages in four regions that an earlier programme linked to the backbone but where no network reaches homes, so the stage between a main line and a home connection has its own count there.

Three items would settle most of this: a statement of which stage the 2.6 thousand counts, a statement of what the 1.9 thousand and 1,600 plans count and why they differ, and a count of villages with household networks. None appears in the English-language papers reviewed.

Dates to watch: the end of 2026, when the goal of more than 3,000 further villages on main lines and the plans of 1.9 thousand and 1,600 villages fall due, together with the West-East backbone, which Corridor Signal reported half laid and which the Times of Central Asia says has more than 2,200 km laid of about 4,500 km, with construction scheduled for completion by then; and the end of 2027, for household networks in 4,786 villages and 323 billion tenge of investment.