Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

The growth rate of Azerbaijan's information and communication technologies sector amounted to 18.2 percent in the first ten months of 2012, a communications ministry official has said.

Isfandiyar Aliyev, head of strategic development at the Communications and Information Technologies Ministry, was summarizing this year's results of the People's Computer project implementation during a press conference.

The project aims to reduce the digital divide in Azerbaijani society and broaden the introduction of ICT in the country.

"Starting in 2013, work is expected to be launched on the project of broadband Internet development," Aliyev said.

The project will be implemented based on the "fibre-to-the-home" principle. The minimum data transfer rate provided to the end user in the capital Baku will be 30 Mb/s, while the maximum rate will amount to 100 Mb/s. In the country's regions, the figure will stand at 10-30 Mb/s, Aliyev said.

The computers offered within the People's Computer project are sold under an interest free loan for up to 12 months at a price of 25-40 percent below market value.

20,284 computers have been sold under the People's Computer project since it was launched in the country with population of about 9.3 million people in April 2009. Some 90 percent of them are portable computers.

Only 16 percent of the computers were sold in Baku, which shows that people in Azerbaijani regions are interested in the project.

The project is carried out with the involvement of computer giants HP and Microsoft. Equipment is supplied by HP's local partner, BestComp Group.

Antivirus software Symantec, ADSL modems and data cards from cellular operators Azercell Telecom and Azerfon are being offered to customers.

Some 13 million manats (over $16.5 million) have been invested in the project since 2009, including 3 million manats this year. The entire amount of investments has been made by the project participants.

Currently, the project is open to those involved in the education sphere, including schoolchildren and university students. In the future, the project is planned to cover the healthcare and public sectors.