Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

A project on broadband Internet development in Azerbaijan is expected to be approved by the end of the month, Aztelekom Production Association of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies told Trend news agency on Friday.

The project will contribute to the expansion of broadband network infrastructure and deployment of multimedia services in Azerbaijani regions on its basis.

The document is being finalized by the ministry, and the project's final cost will be determined upon its approval.

According to Aztelekom Director General Magomed Mammadov, some 291 million manats (about $371 million) will be spent to expand broadband network infrastructure in the regions of Azerbaijan in 2013.

The project envisions a phased transfer of the operator's regional telecommunications center to the Next Generation Network (NGN), alternate routing of optical telecommunication lines and construction of high-speed IP-lines based on MPLS technology over a DWDM network.

The possibility of using GPON technology is considered in order to bring optical telecommunication lines to the end-users in major cities, while using CDMA 1x EV-DO and WiMAX standards is mulled to provide broadband services to people living in remote regions of the country.

To date, automatic telephone systems of regional telecommunication centers have been replaced by electronic systems. The length of fiber optic lines laid by the production association since the beginning of 2012 to connect such systems has reached 2,000 kilometers.

The creation of broadband infrastructure has drawn the interest of private providers, encouraging them to expand their business in the regions. 19 operators are currently providing internet services outside the capital city of Baku.

Seven providers are involved in the project on the development of broadband services, initiated by Aztelekom. Owing to the efforts of these providers optical communication lines with a total length of 570 kilometers have been laid in rural areas.

According to Mammadov, the expansion of optical infrastructure has led to the increase in the number of broadband connections in the country's regions. The number of broadband connections in the Aztelekom network has doubled since the beginning of 2012, reaching 110,000, while the monthly volume of broadband services has increased by 75 percent compared to the beginning of last year.

At present, the share of earnings from broadband services in the total profit of the operator amounts to 20 percent. In 2011, this figure was 8.7 percent.