Pipelines: Because Kazakhstan is a large country producing large amounts of oil and natural gas, pipelines receive high priority in transportation planning, and their location and funding have been controversial issues. In 2004 Kazakhstan had 10,370 kilometers of natural gas pipeline, 10,158 kilometers of oil pipeline, 1,187 kilometers of pipeline for refined products, and 1,465 kilometers for water. Poor management and distribution of the domestic pipeline system have necessitated importation of natural gas, and foreign investment has concentrated on export lines. Kazakhstan is linked to the Russian pipeline system by the Atyrau-Samara line, whose capacity was increased in 2001, and to Russia’s Black Sea oil terminal at Novorossiysk by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium line. The Central Asia Oil Pipeline sends oil from Kazakhstan through Turkmenistan and Afghanistan to Pakistan’s Arabian Sea port of Gwadar. In late 2004, construction began on the Atasu-Alashankou oil pipeline between eastern Kazakhstan and Xinjiang Province in China. That 970-kilometer line is to have a capacity of 20 million tons per year.
Telecommunications: Although Kazakhstan has the best telephone system in Central Asia, the system rates poorly by world standards, providing only 12 lines per 1,000 inhabitants in 2003. Attempts to attract foreign investment have largely failed. The state-owned national telecommunications company, Kazakhtelcom, has received assistance from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in a nationwide program of expansion and modernization. Particular growth has occurred in mobile phone access; in 2002 more than 1 million people used mobile telephones, compared with 29,000 in 1994. The planned launch of the KazSat communications satellite from the Baykonur space platform in late 2005 or 2006, with Russian technical assistance, would reduce dependence on European and U.S. telecommunications satellites.
Expansion of Internet use has been limited by the relatively low ownership of computers in Kazakhstan. Most users access the Internet at public or work facilities. Usage is concentrated in the northern urban centers. In 2003 an estimated 250,000 people were using the Internet, with about 1,600 domestic servers. More than half the sites being accessed were foreign.