The Internet network was shut down all over Kazakhstan during the social unrest. People had no access to their usual means of communication – messengers and social media. They were replaced by SMS and voice calls.
The analysts of Kcell – local mobile carrier – calculated the amount of text messages sent by its subscribers while the Internet was unavailable in the country.
January 7 to January 9 were the peak days when record number of SMS was sent, with 51 million 120 thousand 435 texts sent on January 7, 70 million 910 thousand 322 texts on January 8 and 67 million 278 thousand 926 SMS on January 9.
By comparison, Kcell and activ subscribers sent an average of almost 15 million text messages daily in December 2021, when there were no problems with access to the network in the country. On January 8, Kazakhstanis sent 55 million SMS more than on a normal day.
The peak value for outgoing SMS was reached from January 8 to 9 and amounted to over 3.6 million messages per hour, which is 116 times higher than the average value on a normal day.
When it comes to the voice traffic, records were broken here as well.
Between January 5 and 10, subscribers generated about 75% more voice traffic than on the average day in December 2021. For example, the peak day was Thursday, January 6, and it was up 88%.
Providing customers with the cellular communication services is the top priority of the Kcell team. Our employees worked around the clock to ensure that there was no network congestion when making voice calls and no delays in delivery of SMS and alerts from government agencies.
It should be noted that by order of the President of Kazakhstan Kasym-Jomart Tokayev all Kcell and activ subscribers were provided with free 300 minutes of airtime and 200 SMS.