Today, August 12, Kazakhstan experienced large-scale disruptions in the services of mobile operator Kcell/activ. According to user reports, SMS messages - including verification codes from banks and online services - stopped being delivered in various cities across the country, DKNews.kz reports.
Complaints began appearing on social media as early as the morning. People wrote that they could not make payments, transfer funds, or log into personal accounts because messages with security codes simply were not arriving.
The Editor-in-chief of DKNews.kz shared that due to the Kcell issue, several of his banking operations failed - without SMS verification, it is impossible to complete financial transactions.
Kcell’s official statement
The company confirmed the technical outage. According to their information, the issue affects the delivery of some verification messages.
“Our specialists are already working to resolve the malfunction. We apologize for the temporary inconvenience and are doing everything possible to restore stable service,” the Kcell press service said.
The operator did not specify the timeframe for fixing the problem.
Banking services hit hardest
The outage has been particularly painful for mobile banking users. Without SMS verification, it is impossible to pay for purchases, transfer money, or access an account. In some cases, customers were unable to receive salaries or pay utility bills.
Not the first outage in the country
In July, a massive service disruption hit several operators in Astana - subscribers of Kcell, Tele2, and Kazakhtelecom were left without connection. At the time, the cause was said to be emergency maintenance work.
What to do now
Experts advise temporarily switching to alternative authentication methods - push notifications in banking apps, calls to call centers, or backup SIM cards from other operators.
The situation is still developing. Users are demanding not only the swift restoration of services from Kcell/activ but also compensation for being unable to use mobile communication and banking services.
