Kazakhstan: The Freedom to tap into data reserves

Feeding customers’ appetite for data

“The idea behind Freedom Telecom was that without reliable telecoms, you can’t have a successful fintech industry. Historically, the [Kazakh] telecoms industry was underinvested, maybe for several reasons. One of them was that the government regulated the tariffs for the consumers, and so holding it back, and therefore the companies could not invest well enough. As a result, two of three mobile carriers were government-owned,” he says.

“We started in this business about three years ago [when] we applied for [a mobile licence] through auction. We could not win it from the first attempt, because we were bidding against government companies,” adds Akhmetov.

“[Now] we have fibre construction datacentres, and we already have the biggest Wi-Fi network in the region, and we successfully launched a fixed wireless service, which is essentially 5G for home routers. We have launched it in three cities, and now sales are exceeding our forecasts.”

That service is of increasing importance to its user base if data consumption states are considered, according to Akhmetov. “We have seen interesting [statistics showing] that our data consumption averaged more than 400GB [gigabytes] per customer, which is even more than the average data consumption for fibre consumers in Europe. So, it means that the connectivity quality and speeds are good, and for our wireless products, data consumption exceeds fibre options for European platforms.”

We have fibre construction datacentres, the biggest Wi-Fi network in the region and a fixed wireless service – and sales are exceeding our forecasts

The company also offers Wi-Fi 7. Added together, the offering makes for a solid overall connectivity proposition. The Wi-Fi business is not that obvious to the outside world because it is free to use to customers in their homes, but also potentially as part of an offer connecting from routers in crowded places like hotspots, cafes, shops, shopping malls and supermarkets. Fibre is essential to the smooth running of the external Wi-Fi 7 offer.

This will be available to users of the Freedom SuperApp, with precise speed depending on the loyalty level of the customer. For example, a platinum user will have access to near-gigabit speeds. Those who have just entered the ecosystem and don’t spend as much money with the company will be incentivised to use the holding group’s services, such as credit cards, to gain an improved connectivity offer.

Empowering users of the SuperApp

The importance of the SuperApp to Freedom really cannot be overstated. It bundles digital applications from the Freedom Group as a whole, encompassing banking, brokerage, insurance, e-commerce and lifestyle services into a single digital ecosystem, and essentially looks to manage various aspects of a user’s life in Kazakhstan. By early 2026, the app had been downloaded by more than 4.3 million users in a country with a total population of 20.6 million people.

Typical applications hosted on the SuperApp include the ability to make instant payments and transfers, open cards, receive credit products and deposits, change currency at optimum rates, the ability to manage assets and monitor brokerage account balances, and access global stock markets to manage investments.

The app also allows users to receive more than 20 government services, issue insurance policies – such as digital auto insurance (Kasko) and other non-life insurance products – and buy air and rail tickets.

Lifestyle and e-commerce facilities integrate services such as Ticketon.kz (events), Aviata.kz (flights) and Arbuz.kz (e-grocery). With regard to telecoms, the app now includes an embedded eSIM feature (via Boxo), allowing users to purchase and activate international mobile data plans directly in the app. A unique Freedom currency cashback system is tied to the company’s share price performance, allowing users to earn value that fluctuates with the market.

Following roll-out, and what is claimed to be success, in Kazakhstan, Freedom Holding intends to expand its ecosystem and introduce a super app model into Central Asia, Europe and potentially the US.

Key to the app’s success is the number and quality of partnerships that Freedom can strike.

Expanding Freedom partnerships and services

At the Freedom Inside conference, group CEO Timur Turlov unveiled a series of product launches set to expand the group’s digital ecosystem across banking, healthcare, education and AI.

In finance, the company is on the verge of the full commercial rollout of crypto-enabled payments, which on launch will be available to all of the company’s customers in Kazakhstan. “We’ve had it for literally a couple of weeks now, and it’s about to move out of testing into live deployment,” he says.

The feature will allow customers to hold and transact in bitcoin – alongside dollars and euros – directly in the banking app, with the ability to exchange funds, send to any wallet, and top up from any wallet. The first version of the Invescard with crypto functionality is expected to launch through Freedom Bank, before rolling out to the SuperApp.

Furthermore, there is also planned “significant” expansion of the group’s health services offer, which will mean that, with customer consent, Freedom will integrate access to state-held medical records, enabling users to view the full history of physician visits covered by public funds. In making the announcement, Turlov stresses that the feature carries “meaningful” anti-fraud dimension, which means discrepancies between official records and actual visits can be flagged, generating material savings for the state. The platform is also deepening its partnership with Bilim to extend its education ecosystem.

Freedom also revealed that it will be distributing approximately 165,000 ChatGPT Education licences to schools, colleges and universities across Kazakhstan, with issuance handled through the SuperApp.

A fully integrated AI assistant is slated for release in the second half of the year, offering customers free access to premium AI models within the app. The assistant will handle end-to-end tasks – booking flights, purchasing concert tickets, modifying reservations – without requiring users to navigate multiple screens or interfaces. “You won’t need to think about which button to press,” says Turlov. “The team is working on this at full intensity.”

Fibre network roll-out

In the pure-play telecoms world, the company has already collaborated with Vodafone in building a 1,200km fibre network whereby the European operator has acted as a consultant, providing Freedom Telecom with access to international best practices, technology and industry experience.

One of the main projects within the scope of the fibre project has been linking China through an Eastern Europe corridor, going through Kazakhstan, the Black Sea and to the south of Europe. Fibre connections offered by the company can, in some cases, go above 2Gbps, and this is delivered by the deployment of comms technology from a number of technical partners, including Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei, taking advantage of the lack of bans on the latter’s products and services, unlike European peers. In the latter regard, Akhmetov observes that he had seen none of the reported issues regarding security and that the Chinese firm is very much a partner whose tech is being used for base stations and fixed wireless access (FWA).

“There is no US law that restricts us from buying Huawei. Of course, we obey all the laws and the rules of the stock exchange, but for us, we decide which is better for our firm [in terms of] improving. And if you see [tech with a] better price and better performance, then you take it. Again, we are closely looking at any cyber security risk, but we haven’t seen any proof that could be viable.”

5G FWA offerings are based mainly on rooftop 5G base stations using Huawei equipment, mostly for cities at present. However, Freedom is also thinking of utilising old TV antennas, some of which can be more than 100 metres high, in the rural areas. These could transmit signals over an area of over 10km or 15km. The company had calculated that in using such technology, it could cover four or five million people in rural areas.

Putting down a timeline for the national fibre optic network roll-out, and the whole country, Akhmetov estimates that it could take about three years. Very much more on a shorter time scale, if not at a much higher level, literally, the CEO confirms that the company is investigating in-flight satellite with several major airlines and government providers.

The main work factor in this area is seen as the cost of aeroplane upgrade with the necessary communications equipment, something Akhmetov calculates to be in the region of about half a million dollars per aircraft. There is also the need to not only invest in air-to-ground technologies, but also base stations matching designated airline corridors.

Akhmetov confirms that the company is trying to find a window for such work, looking to find a solution where it could decrease the current typical cost of aeroplane updates. He also notes that while some airlines are trying to go with Starlink and other major providers to gain worldwide coverage on the aeroplanes, the Freedom solution would not be worldwide but would be “much cheaper”.

From cost centre to profit centre

Assessing the importance of his division to the overall Freedom group, Akhmetov accepts that right now his business is essentially a cost centre, but that the plan is to try to become a profit centre by acting like a startup within the corporation. As to where the required revenue will come from, he indicates that the firm will make a push into the B2B sector, attempting to gain a market share of as much as 50% within three years.

“And it’s highly mergeable because we will have the latest technologies and [undergo] rapid deployment,” he assures. “It is possible we will complement it and combine it with other system solutions like banking, Wi-Fi, managed IT services and travel.”

My goal is to achieve the cheapest cost – the lowest cost of a gigabyte delivered to customers in the world

Fintech is another area of interest, and one in which Freedom will attempt to use its infrastructure to offer services and compete with rivals that piggyback onto other networks. Akhmetov accepts that on a global basis, telcos have not typically shown agility from a services point of view, but says it will be different with Freedom. “You need to move fast and create things like Silicon Valley,” he says. “I think my mission is to bring the culture and success that Silicon Valley companies and startup companies have achieved.”

Part of this will be expansion outside of Kazakhstan in the region, with neighbouring Tajikistan and Turkey identified as the first countries in this regard. Potential projects could also include complements to standard telecoms services, such as providing some custom-made hardware. Partnerships will be the cornerstone of this.

Looking ahead, Akhmetov sees a marketplace with more technology to use, but also more rivals, but he is relaxed about the latter. “Competition makes us stronger,” he says. And he is very clear as to how the company will aim to create a winning competitive position.

“Freedom has managed to compete with [Kazakh] incumbents very successfully, so we have that culture. I think you can repeat the success. In Europe or in the US, the average price of gigabytes in your time is usually about $5 per gigabyte. I’m trying to make it less than 10 cents per gigabyte. And also, usually a telco sells you 50GB, and if you only consume 20 or 30 of them, they don’t give you money back. What we will introduce is rolling over of the gigabytes. My goal is to achieve the cheapest cost – the lowest cost of a gigabyte delivered to customers in the world.”