TODAY.AZ / Society

ICT sector developing day by day

24 October 2014 [09:37] - TODAY.AZ

/AzerNews/

By Nigar Orujova

Energy rich Azerbaijan is striving to develop its non-oil sector and the development of Information and Communication Technology sphere is of particular importance for the country.

Over the past five years, the information technology sector of Azerbaijan has increased two fold. As figures show, revenues of the ICT sector in Azerbaijan increased by more than 12 percent in the nine months of 2014.

Currently, the internet penetration rate of Azerbaijan stands at 70 percent. The broadband Internet penetration among the population stands at 50 percent.

Operators in Azerbaijan provided services totaling 1140.5 million manats in January-September 2014, which is 12.6 percent higher than the same period of 2013, State Statistics Committee reports.

Over 72 percent of the total volume of information and communication services was given to ordinary people with 58.8 percent of the total income received falling on mobile services.

The total income received from the mobile services in the country for the mentioned period amounted to 671.1 million manats, which is 7.3 percent higher than in January-September, 2013.

Mobile sector is one of the well developing spheres of the ICT sector in the country, the mobile phone penetration in the country stands at 110 percent, thanks to services by its three main mobile operators.

Despite this, 55,900 mobile phones and tablets were imported into the country in January-September. Thus, about 7,000 phones were brought to the over 9.5 million people.

However, the market remains stable as the number of imported phones decreased by 4.8 percent in comparison with the same period of 2013.

Today, Azerbaijanis prefer portable computers to personal ones. The market share of PCs decreased by about 20 percent, while the share of notebooks raised by about 50 percent in January-September. The interest in tablets has also increased by 39 percent.

Moreover, with the development of the broadband Internet infrastructure in the capital and the regions, the Internet penetration in the country will increase.

The cost of this 'Fiber to the home' project is estimated to reach more than 450 million manats ($573 million). The ultimate goal of the project is to provide the whole country, including remote rural settlements, with high-speed Internet in the range of 30-100 Mbit/s, and bring the number of broadband Internet users up to 85 percent from the current 70 percent.

This will allow Azerbaijan to enter the club of developed countries by 2017.

The volume of consumed incoming Internet traffic on the network of the Azerbaijani primary provider company Delta Telecom increased by 20 percent and amounted to 120 gigabits in September, compared with August.

ICT is supposed to enter every sphere of life in Azerbaijan.

From e-health cards to e-contracts, e-signature, e-wallet, e-commerce, and many other sectors are now switches to the electronic format. With launching of the first telecommunication satellite Azerspace-1, the country would switch to the digital broadcasting.

The total investment made in the development of information, communication and mail sector amounted to 62.5 million manats or 0.8 percent of the total investment in the country's economy in the first half of 2014.

Last year the country invested about 202.2 million manats (over $257 million) in the ICT sector and postal services. Investment in the development of the ICT sector in Azerbaijan is expected to increase to $4 billion by 2020.

Azerbaijan ranks 49th in the Global Information Technology Report 2014 in terms of the Network Readiness Index (NRI) compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The country also holds a leading position in the CIS in terms of the number of broadband internet subscribers.

The Land of Fire ranks 48th in terms of the number of fixed broadband connections per 100 inhabitants, being ahead of Russia that stands at 50th place and Turkey at 69th.

At present, Azerbaijan is the leading country of the region in terms of ICT development, which technically helps other countries.

The country has launched a project to create a platform of broadband connection TASIM, which is endorsed by the ITU and supported by the three resolutions of UN General Assembly.

The TASIM project envisions the creation of a major transit link from Frankfurt to Hong Kong. The line will connect the major centers of information exchange in Europe and Asia together, stretching through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and Germany. A reserve North transit line will traverse the territory of Russia, Ukraine and Poland.

Thus, with all these and future projects, the ICT may become one of the profitable sphere of the non-oil sector in the near future.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/society/137180.html

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