Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr S. Babayeva / The Azerbaijani Ministry of Communication and Informational Technologies reported on 26 April that the final draft of the program on turning to digital telecasting in Azerbaijan will be submitted to the government for further consideration in the beginning of May.
The program includes three stages:
- the first stage covers 2007-2010,
- the second stage covers 2011-2013,
- the third stage covers2014-2015.
At first 2 telecasting packages, each of them including 4 channels will be launched in Baku, Ganja, and Nakhchivan. One package will cover the entire country. As a result 60-70% of Azerbaijan's population will have access to digital telecasting.
During the second stage one more package will be introduces in Baku, Ganja, and Nakhchivan. As a result 90% of the population will be covered.
Some 12 program packages will be introduced by 2013.
During the third stage additional sensors will be set in order to improve the quality of the telecasting. As a result 98% of the population will be covered.
Turning from analogue to digital telecasting is one of Azerbaijan's obligations to the International Telecommunication Union.
The Ministry considers turn to digital telecasting to be necessary. For the firs time in Azerbaijan a digital telecasting system was enabled in Baku as a pilot project on 10 October, 2004.