Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 16 /Trend H.Valiyev /
A project to develop broadband internet in Azerbaijan (Fibre-to-the-Home) will be presented to the Presidential Administration in the coming days, Azerbaijani Communications and Information Technologies Ministry's report on results of nine months said.
According to the ministry, the project has been fully coordinated with the relevant government bodies.
Implementation of the 'Fibre-to-the-Home' project will cover a period up to 2018.
This year it is expected to allocate some 103 million manats from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) for the project's realisation. Funding of the project through SOFAZ will also be continued in the next year.
The 'Fibre-to-the-Home' project is estimated at about $500 million. It is considered to be highly profitable and from the second year of its implementation some 30-35 per cent of its total cost will be financed through reinvestments.
According to the ministry's plans, by 2017 all areas of Azerbaijan will be provided with high-speed internet access.
At present, 70 per cent of Azerbaijan's population uses the internet and the penetration rate of broadband internet among the population is 50 per cent.
The ultimate goal of the project is to supply the entire country including its distant rural areas with high-speed internet within the range of 10-100 Mbit/s, as well as bringing the number of high-speed internet users to 85 per cent. This will allow Azerbaijan to reach the level of developed world countries by 2017.