Azercell expanded the coverage of the LTE network to more than 85% of the country's territory last year

26 January 2021 13:00 (UTC+04:00)

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Azercell Telecom has successfully continued its activities to strengthen the LTE network in 2020. The mobile operator significantly expanded the LTE network coverage, facilitating the provision of better service to subscribers throughout the country.

As a result of the operations carried out, Azercell’s LTE network coverage increased from 74.2% to 85.1%, while the geographical area of the network was expanded from 61.4% to 72.4% last year. Since the launch of the LTE network improvement project in January 2019, the coverage of Azercell's LTE network has increased from 35.9% to 85.1%, and the geographical coverage surged from 22.5% to 72.4%.

Within the framework of the LTE network expansion project, 784 new 4G Radio Base Stations were installed in 2020. Some of these stations were put into operation in the territories liberated from occupation as a result of the 44-day Patriotic War. In total, the number of LTE Radio Base Stations has reached 2,679. On the back of the work done in the regions, the LTE network has been further expanded across the country. Suffice to say that, 118 new LTE stations were launched only during September-December last year.

Under the active work in the field of network improvement, significant progress has been achieved in the services provided by Azercell in the country.

These actions have also affected the volume of data traffic transmitted via LTE technology in Azercell network. This figure has increased by 2.25 times over the past year. Currently, about 69% of the total traffic on the network is run through this technology. In general, voice traffic on the LTE network grew by 14%, while Internet traffic increased by 60% in 2020.

Activities towards improving the quality of the LTE network in Baku and Absheron cover the Baku Metro Station, as well. The works under the project have already been completed on 13 metro stations and tunnels. LTE-Carrier Connection system installed in metro stations, allows subscribers to get higher speed mobile internet.

It should be noted that Azercell is ahead of other mobile operators in the regions of the country in terms of data transmission speed, data download time, and higher quality transmission of video materials via LTE technology. This fact was confirmed by the results of an independent benchmarking test conducted by the European Company Systemics in Azerbaijan last year. A benchmarking study conducted by Ericsson, a world-class telecommunications company, showed that Azercell is one of the best operators in the "Best in class" in terms of LTE network speed. The application of the Argela system, which allows real-time monitoring of the network, also enables Azercell to maintain a high-level LTE network quality.

Currently, Azercell continues technical measures to upgrade the performance of the LTE network, to ensure and increase the quality of Internet traffic in the capital and regions. The leading mobile operator is also rapidly increasing the number of LTE base stations.

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The leader of the mobile communication industry, the largest taxpayer and the biggest investor of the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan “Azercell Telecom” LLC was founded in 1996. Currently, 5 million subscribers choose Azercell services. Mobile operator controls 49% of market share; while its geographical coverage constitutes 89.3%; and population coverage 99.8%.

Azercell was the pioneering mobile operator to introduce a number of innovations in Azerbaijan, including GSM technology, advance payment system, mobile internet services, 24/7 call center service (*1111), 7/7 Front Office service, Azercell Express offices, M2M services, 4G technology, mobile and online customer care services and customer services through social media, mobile e-signature service “ASAN Imza” etc.

Azercell tested 5G pilot network for the first time in the country in the frame of “Bakutel 2019” exhibition. Rapidly increasing 4G network of Azercell covers nearly 60 regions of the country, including Baku and Absheron peninsula. According to the results of mobile network quality and wireless coverage mapping surveys by international systems, Azercell’s 4G network demonstrated the best results among the mobile operators of Azerbaijan.

Azercell is the only company in Azerbaijan and CIS region which has been awarded Gold Certificate of International “Investors in People” Standard. The mobile operator received the title of "The Telecommunication Company of the Year" among hundreds of organizations in the prestigious STEVIE 2020 competition. The company was ranked on the top in this nomination and won the Gold Award.