Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The telecommunication market of Azerbaijan is ready for the transition to the fifth generation mobile communication standard 5G.

The statement was made by Vice President of ZTE Yang Jun, who said that the corporation will mainly focus on the development of 5G technology in the next 5-10 years.

“This technology has a wide range of coverage, and it is hardly possible to talk about it in a few words. We cannot specifically say whether the operators of Azerbaijan are ready to implement the 5G or not, but it is possible that there are certain sectors in the market where this technology can be implemented,” Jun told Trend.

Assessing the telecommunications market in Azerbaijan, the VP said that this segment cannot develop independently, as it is an integral part of the country’s economy.

“Also, we should not pin our hopes on the fact that the telecommunications market will be developed exclusively by operators. Yes, of course, large players dictate common processes in the market, but the core of development is the building of a strong IT infrastructure,” said Jun.

He noted it is necessary that the state, operators and IT companies have a common approach to the existing issues and regulate them together in order to get good results.

“We are now experiencing a period of demand for optical connections, respectively, Azerbaijan’s integration into the global IT sphere will depend on how quickly the country will respond to the market demands,” said Jun.

Currently, there are four generations of mobile communication in the world. It is believed that the fifth generation of mobile communications will appear by 2020 or a little later.

These networks will achieve a mobile data transfer rate of up to 10 gigabits per second, that is, 100 times more than the speeds offered by today's 4G networks. And the current generation (4G) networks, built using LTE technology, allow today to reach speeds of 100 megabits per second.

At the moment, programs are underway to develop the basic outlines of the fifth generation standard. That is why it is yet impossible to give an exact definition of 5G, we can only guess what the networks will become after 2020.

However, there is no doubt that the new standard will be quickly integrated in the ICT sphere of Azerbaijan, as it is considered to be one of the crucial spheres for the further development of the economy and an integral part of the economic and political reforms which are currently implemented in the country.

Today, a significant part of the population enjoys mobile access to the Internet in Azerbaijan. About 91 percent of citizens check smartphone updates in their mailbox, 75 percent of the population uses mobile devices to communicate in social networks.

Three companies operate in the mobile Internet and communications market of Azerbaijan: Azercell, Bakcell, Nar (Azerfon). There is also the NAXTEL company operating in Nakhchivan Autonomous republic, which is not yet allowed to enter the common communications market, and it lacks a corresponding license. Two more companies - Delta Telecom and Sazz - so far only announced their entry into the mobile market.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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