Kazakhstan to сontinue sharing country code with Russia

Digital Ministry decided not to switch to the +997 country code, which has been reserved for Kazakhstan since 2021 / Photo: Shutterstock

Kazakhstan is going to continue using the +7 country code, the press service of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry reported. The agency has decided not to switch to the +997 country code, which has been reserved for Kazakhstan since 2021, due to financial and technological issues that may emerge in the future.

«When we dived into the issue of switching to the new code in conjunction with operators, we realized that although it is possible, the switch may have some financial and technical consequences for us. Furthermore, all our operators would be needed to update their data in public and banking services, social networks and various apps. This means that there is a high probability of failures and negative user experience,» the ministry said in a statement.

After negotiations with the International Telecommunication Union, the Digital Ministry has decided not to change its current country code of +7. The agency has already prepared a draft agreement between the governments of Kazakhstan and Russia on joint use of the +7 code and is waiting for the Russian answer.

The context. In 2021, the Digital Ministry said that Kazakhstan would switch to a new international country code of +997, following the decision made of the International Telecommunication Union under the United Nations. Foreigners receiving calls from Kazakhstan were supposed to see the word «Kazakhstan» on their phones if the new code had been adopted.

The country was expected to start switching to the new code in 2023 to fully complete this process by 2025.

In March 2023, some media outlets reported that Kazakhstan could adopt the new +77 country code. The Digital Ministry and Apple even discussed how the name of Kazakhstan would be presented on a user’s phone display. As a result, users see «Kazakhstan,» not «Russia» when receiving incoming calls with the +77 and +76 codes.