OREANDA-NEWS. On January 22, 2009 ASTEL (Almaty), shares of which are present in Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) official list, provided to KASE the press release on the following, reported the press-centre of KASE:

Astel got connected to the National Internet-traffic Exchange Center. The President of Astel Vladimir Breusov believes that such interaction will be of interest for all participants of the peer center as it unloads external Internet channels and decreases the delay of data transmission inside Kazakhstan.

First in the Republic of Kazakhstan National Internet-traffic Exchange Center functions in Almaty from October 2007. National Internet-traffic Exchange Center has been created to implement orders of the country President and Government on further development of the domestic Internet services market. The legal entity in the form of association has been established to manage the center activities.

The center opens the possibility for domestic Internet services providers to exchange Kazakhstan traffic without using international Internet channels based on single for all rules and terms of connection in compliance with standard peer agreements.

At present within the center is being implemented the peer interaction between networks of Kazakhtelecom, Nursat, Interlsoft and Astel. Th Intyernet traffic exchange speed reaches 15 mb/s.

- Due to entry of new members into Association "Internet-traffic Exchange Center", declines the traffic self-cost and finally - tariffs for subscribers, - emphasized the Association Director Erlen Akhmetov. In 2008 it was decided to eliminate the entry fee for operators willing to join the center. In addition, through optimization of the center operation has significantly decreased the monthly m membership dues for participants. Also in the first quarter of 2009 is expected the connection to the center of two more communication operators.

Kazakhstan company Astel is represented on the domestic telecommunications from 1993. For 15 years ASTEL showed itself as the highly professional company, providing wide range of telecommunications services and taking the leading positions on the domestic market. The key result of the company performance is creation of one of the powerful in Kazakhstan baseline network of data transmission KazNet. On this network basis the company provided the complex of services, stable functioning of which is ensured by regional technical blocks and 24 hour user support service.