Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan.29 / Trend H. Veliyev /
Azerbaijan ranks sixth on the growth of telecommunications market in the CIS countries, the British-American research company PMR report on the telecommunications market in the CIS countries in 2010 says.
According to the PMR estimates, excluding Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus are three largest telecom markets in the CIS. They are followed by Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan.
PMR analysts recorded a slight increase in the telecommunications market of the CIS in 2010, but in 2011 they forecast the dynamics of decline. Total amount of revenues of the players in the CIS in 2010 amounted to 36.6 billion euros.
A growth of the telecommunications market in 2010 was 3.9 percent. In 2011, as forecasted by PMR, revenues of telecommunication companies of the CIS will increase by 2.7 percent - to 39 billion euros.
Growth in the region will be ensured by further penetration of broadband access and increasing demands for data transmission services. The main factors in the development of broadband Internet access, according to PMR, will be a relatively low level of its penetration to date, low tariffs and bringing new technologies to market.
According to the PMR estimates, the market of Internet service providers, as before, is far from saturation and it still has a significant potential for further growth even in the most developed CIS countries from this point of view.
Most CIS countries' problem, especially in the Central Asia, is the limited development of telephone networks, which limits the deployment of ADSL and investment in this sphere. Mobile operators launching UMTS networks in most cases serve as a provider of "last mile" in the CIS countries.
During the next four years, PMR expects the dynamic growth of the telecommunications market in the CIS countries. According to PMR estimates, competition for Internet users in the coming years will be developed between operators of fixed and mobile communications. The share of Internet service providers in the total revenues from telecommunication services will grow.