Kazakhstan’s nationwide Internet blackout: what we saw
Kazakhstan entered 2022 with severe Internet disruptions that escalated into a complete nationwide shutdown on January 5. The outage followed mass protests triggered by a sudden rise in energy prices. According to Cloudflare Radar data, the full shutdown began after 10:30 UTC (16:30 local time), though mobile Internet restrictions had already been in place the day before.
Mobile networks bore the brunt of the early disruptions. On January 4, around 14:30 UTC, traffic from mobile devices dropped significantly compared to the same time the previous day. This is particularly notable because mobile accounts for roughly 75% of Internet traffic in Kazakhstan, a common pattern in the region. Operators such as Tele2 and Kcell saw steep traffic declines after 16:00 UTC on January 4, though traffic did not fall to zero, suggesting throttling rather than a complete cutoff at that stage.
By January 5, the situation had escalated. A sharp spike in Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) updates around 10:45 UTC indicated that Kazakhstan’s autonomous systems (ASNs) — most prominently those belonging to the largest telecom operator, Kazakhtelecom — were no longer routable. This BGP signaling is a signature of a state-imposed Internet shutdown, similar in mechanism to what was observed in The Gambia at the end of 2024, though the circumstances differed considerably.
The Kazakhstan shutdown fits a recurring pattern of governments切断 Internet access during unrest. It bears some resemblance to the 25-day shutdown in Sudan in late 2021, which the Sudanese prime minister resigned in the aftermath of this week, but it is distinct from the outage in The Gambia reported today.
Brief windows of connectivity
The shutdown was not absolute. On January 5, around 18:00 UTC, Internet services — mainly on Kazakhtelecom — returned for roughly three hours. This coincided with a televised speech by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in which he appealed to a Russia-led security bloc for assistance to "protect the state." Connectivity was cut again at 21:30 UTC.
A second, smaller restoration occurred on January 6. Starting after 10:45 UTC, it again lasted about three hours (until 13:35 UTC) and was primarily visible on Kazakhtelecom. This period aligned with the announcement of results from a session of the Kazakh Security Council, chaired by President Tokayev, which issued several "urgent instructions." Reports from the Russian news agency Tass emerged around 11:04 UTC.
The most significant restoration came on Friday, January 7. Beginning at approximately 02:50 UTC (08:50 local time), connectivity returned for three hours until 05:50 UTC. This time, the recovery extended beyond Kazakhtelecom to include mobile networks such as Beeline and Tele2.
The January 7 window coincided with a counter-terrorism meeting led by President Tokayev, which started around 01:00 UTC. In remarks that followed, he announced that law enforcement agents had been given permission to use lethal force to quell the unrest. Tass was the first international outlet to report the news, at 07:37 UTC.
Impact beyond connectivity
The prolonged blackout has had wide-ranging consequences. Local and government websites, including en.tengrinews.kz, ktk-tv.kz/kz, nur.kz, khabar.kz, and gov.kz, have been offline. The international outlet Astanatimes.com remains up but has not updated since Wednesday.
Beyond media, the disruption has affected communications between families — with reports of a free package of call minutes and SMS being offered — and has taken a toll on businesses and Bitcoin mining operations. Kazakhstan is the world’s second-largest mining hub.
While there appears to be a pattern of restoring Internet access for a few hours around presidential announcements, the shutdown remained in effect as of the latest observations. Cloudflare Radar continues to provide real-time visibility into the situation.
