Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijan's Internet community is drafting proposals to further reduce the cost of the Internet, Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Elmir Velizade has said.

"The issue of reducing the cost of the Internet for end-users is currently an urgent topic of discussion, which is also envisaged as part of the activities for this year in connection with its announcement as the Year of ICT in Azerbaijan," Velizade said.

He said real steps on reducing the cost of Internet services may be taken only after the Internet community submits specific proposals.

In late August, a source at the telecommunication market said reduction of Internet service fees is expected by the end of the year.

Suggestions to reduce Internet fees have been received from both privately owned and public Internet service providers, and work is in progress to finalize the preparation of the final proposals.

Earlier Ramazan Valiyev, CEO of primary Azerbaijani provider Delta Telecom, said an Internet fee reduction is possible if the ISPs ensure quality delivery of content to the end-user. Valiyev believes the Internet market in Azerbaijan is on the verge of quality improvement. The main obstacle for its development is the prevalence of copper cable infrastructure, which should be replaced by fiber optic lines.

Broadband communication services are to be provided in every household by means of the Fiber-to-Home technology. The State Oil Fund will allocate 450 million manats for the implementation of this task in 2013, 2014 and 2015. As a result, some 30 Mbit/s Internet access will be available in the countryside and 100 Mbit/s in the cities.

More than 30 ISPs are operating in the country.