Free internet from Freedom: Timur Turlov explains why the company is developing public Wi-Fi

Freedom Holding Corp. has rolled up its sleeves as it engages in developing Wi-Fi infrastructure in all major cities of Kazakhstan. According to Timur Turlov, the company’s CEO, once the project is completed, it will help ease the pressure on mobile networks in the cities and attract more loyal customers to the holding’s ecosystem.

In 2024, free Wi-Fi by Freedom was introduced alongside the health path (terrenkur) in Almaty. This project became a testing ground for the company as it develops Wi-Fi infrastructure across Kazakhstan.

«We have understood the mistakes we made during the creation of the Wi-Fi infrastructure, realized that we can handle different engineering tasks very effectively. We also figured out how to build such systems faster and more cost-effectively,» Turlov told journalists during a press briefing on Dec. 10.

He also explained that Wi-Fi protocols are starting to resemble those of mobile networks in terms of architecture.

«Wi-Fi is increasingly matching the standards offered by mobile phone operators in terms of their quality. Additionally, since most of this equipment is not patent-protected, it makes its manufacturing more cost-effective,» Turlov said.

Moreover, the latest versions of Wi-Fi routers support a free and wide frequency range for data connection. In contrast, mobile operators are limited to a restricted number of frequencies, which are not free.

Turlov recalled that in 2022, Mobile Telecom Service and Kcell mobile operators, both controlled by Kazakhtelecom, secured two 5G frequency bands — 3,600 to 3,700 megahertz (MHz) and 3,700 to 3,800 MHz — for $122.6 million and $183.6 million, respectively.

«Once again, there are twice as many Wi-Fi bands and they are free,» Turlov highlighted.

Currently available advanced technologies enable a seamless transition between frequency bands.

«When you walk up to a Wi-Fi-powered bus stop, your device will automatically switch from 5G to Wi-Fi. Considering the cutting-edge protocols, you won’t even need to manually select the network — the system will automatically identify the network and connect using your SIM card for authorization,» Turlov described the process.

Establishing many Wi-Fi spots will allow some users to switch from the mobile network to W-Fi, reducing the pressure on mobile communications and thus improving their connection speeds.

«The main task Freedom’s telecom department is engaged in is the establishing of backbone networks. This is something that few people notice and it’s not easy to tout as a big achievement. However, this is very important because it can allow us to provide cellular services of better quality, complementing it with public Wi-Fi,» Turlov added.

This infrastructure will enable the launch of a pilot project for wireless internet connection in Shymkent at the beginning of 2025.

«This is not going to be mobile telecommunications; we are talking about home internet exclusively, but from a technological point of view, it will be built around the 5G standard,» Turlov pledged.

He also clarified that Wi-Fi won’t always be free as it is now. The service will likely remain free for users of Freedom-provided home internet or mobile services, as well as for active clients of Freedom Bank.

«It will be an additional service that, in the long term, will improve the speed of our common mobile network, as some users will switch to our Wi-Fi network,» Turlov said.

The Freedom Holding Corp. CEO hopes that this infrastructure will be a game-changer in the mobile communications market. He also noted that international mobile operators can easily attract clients but struggle with retaining them. On the other hand, banks face the opposite situation — it’s hard for them to acquire new clients, but once they’re on board, they stay for decades.

«We believe that once the ecosystem is built, we could introduce a subscription that combines mobile communications, banking services and a media platform — all as a single service. On top of that, it will make users of our telecommunication services as loyal as bank clients. It’s pretty obvious that we can make communication services cheaper for a client we don’t need to compete over annually,» Turlov summed up.

This week, Kursiv.media reported that Freedom Finance, a subsidiary of Freedom Holding Corp., plans to expand into Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2025.