The mobile market in Kazakhstan grew significantly over the year to Q1 2008, increasing by 58.3 per cent. The total mobile market in the country is now 12.7 million representing a penetration rate of 83.1 per cent. The mobile market leader is GSM Kazakhstan (K'CELL), a joint venture between TeliaSonera and Turkcell's Fintur operation. At the end of the first quarter of 2008 K'CELL had 6.5 million customers, 21 per cent of them on contract. Quarterly net additions reached 483,000, making Q1 the fourth successive quarter in which K'CELL gained the highest number on new connections in the market. Kazakhstan has five mobile operators, three (K'CELL, Neo GSM and Kazakhstan-Rumeli Telecom) using GSM, one ALTEL which has a CDMA network and Kazakhstan Wireless Communications which has an AMPS network with virtually no customers.
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