Azerbaijan in top ten for Internet penetration level
By Nigar Abbasova
ESCAP, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ranked Azerbaijan the 9th among the regional countries for the level of broadband internet penetration.
The figure stands at 19.8 percent in Azerbaijan, according to the State of ICT in Asia and the Pacific 2016: Uncovering the Widening Broadband Divide report of the ESCAP.
The country ranks the first among the countries of Post-Soviet region, thus Azerbaijan left behind Russia (where the level of penetration is 18.8 percent), Georgia (14.6 percent), Kazakhstan (13 percent), Armenia (9.6 percent), Kyrgyzstan (3.7 percent), Uzbekistan (3.6 percent), Tajikistan (0.1 percent) and Turkmenistan (0.1 percent).
Monthly subscription for fixed broadband in the region ranges from $5.83 (in Kyrgyzstan) to $171.4 (in Turkmenistan). The figure is $9.50 in Azerbaijan.
The cost of fixed broadband connection in Azerbaijan is 1.5 percent from the nominal GDP rate per capita. The analogous index stands at 2.1 percent in Kazakhstan, 2.8 percent in Armenia, 2.9 percent in Georgia, 5.6 percent in Kyrgyzstan, 21.5 percent in Uzbekistan and 25.6 and 64.9 percent in Turkmenistan and Tajikistan respectively.
Azerbaijan became the 58th country in the world over number of its Internet users according to Statistical project Internet Live Stats, while the number of Internet users has exceeded the rate of 6 million in the country. The figure increased by 1.2 percent or approximately 72,000 people compared to the 2015 figures.
Deputy Minister of Communications and High Technologies Elmir Valizade, earlier commenting on the level of internet access in the country, said that one of the main issues in this sphere is the quality of provided services.
He mentioned that the country is engaged in the construction of the optic-fiber network in all regions of the country which will provide for qualitative internet and communication services. Main objective of the project is offering the Internet with the speed of 100 Mb/s, the services of IP TV (Internet television) and telephone communication.
The country has recently started the use of 4G Internet service which is considered to be a brand-new technology in the system of mobile telephone network and creates an opportunity for the access to the high-speed Internet all over the country. The signal of the digital broadcasting covers approximately 99 percent of Azerbaijan. Over 75 percent of the country’s population have an access to the Internet.
The sustainable development of the ICT sector is an integral part of the economic and political reforms which are currently implemented in Azerbaijan.
The creation of the Data-centre in the country is considered to be one of the most important steps in this direction. The centre, construction of which has already been completed, is the first licensed centre in Azerbaijan and the Caucasus region. The DATA Center was tested for resilience by American Uptime Institute in order to obtain a certificate of Tier3 level. The certificate is an official confirmation of reliability and security. Tier 3 is considered to be one of the highest levels in this sphere which offers 99.98 percent availability.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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