Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 27 / Trend H. Veliyev /
Full transfer of the billing systems of the Azerbaijani mobile operators to manat tariffing is expected in 2011, the ministry's Regulation Department head Aliyar Tamirov told Trend.
According to Tamirov, this issue is under discussion with the operators. The final decision will depend on their technical readiness.
At present, the ministry has given appropriate instructions to operators on the transfer of billing systems to manat tariffing. A decision was made on the interaction of representatives of the ministry and operators to undertake the necessary works in this direction.
Today, the only operator whose billing system is fully tariffed on monetary units is Azerfon, and full transfer of billing systems of Azercell and Bakcell on manat tariffing will depend on the intensity of works undertaken by them in this direction.
Within the telecommunications exhibition BakuTel-2010, Azercell head Ali Agan stated that the transfer of the billing system to manat tariffing is expected in the second half of 2011.
Transfering to manat tariffing in Azerbaijan has become topical after communication operators in Turkey transferred to a monetary billing on the government's strict demand.
Today, subscribers of mobile operators use contours not just for conversations, but also for obtaining multimedia content, and in some countries for public transport fares. Conversation time turns into a payment, and the presence of the contour system creates problems in the making micro-payments, as the subscriber has no idea of the amount he expended for obtaining any content or services.
Transferring to manat tariffing will put a number of difficult tasks before the operators, which should be solved by them. Operators will need to radically change marketing strategy, solve technical issues, and reset the billing system.