Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. S.Babayeva / The tariffs for the internet providers will be reduced in Azerbaijan by two times, stated Ali Abbasov, the Azerbaijan IT and Communication Minister on 23 December. Abbasv did not detail the term for the reduction in the tariffs. There are rumors that tariffs will be decreased in 2008.
According to Abbasov, the reduction in the tariffs is planned due to the increase in the speed of the channel of Delta Telecom company (the only internet provider in Azerbaijan) for the providers.
The Minister expressed concern, due to lack of the will of the internet-providers to operate in the Azerbaijani regions. "Today we have created all the necessary conditions for those providers to operate in regions. However, they have no interest to operate in regions of Azerbaijan," the Minister noted.
Another factor hindering the development of the internet in the country is the less number of personal computers. A special project, in order to provide the poor population with the computers on the privilege conditions is planned for implementation.
"The project is planned for 2008. If the project will succeed, it will leads to the expansion and the development of the internet in the country," Abbasov said. The number of the internet users in Azerbaijan total 900,000.