The Azerbaijani President signed a decree on March 15, 2012 to establish the State IT Development Fund under the Communications and IT Ministry. The Fund is being established to stimulate the activity in the sector of information and communication technologies, using innovations in this sphere and expanding scientific research. The purpose of establishing the Fund is to support production activity in the field of information technologies, to promote domestic and foreign investments.
According to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee, the volume of information and communication services rendered to the organizations and population in Azerbaijan in the first quarter of 2012 amounted to 789.8 million manat. The rate of this sector growth in the first quarter amounted to 8 percent.
The volume of communication services in the first quarter amounted to 210.7 million manat, or 9.3 percent more than last year. About 72.7 percent of the total volume fell to the share of services rendered to the population. About 65.1 percent fell to mobile services. The figure increased by 7 per cent and amounted to 188.6 million manat compared to 2011.
The amount of income on the ICT sector and postal services increased in the first quarter at comparable prices by 8.1 percent, amounting to 303.4 million manat compared to the same period of 2011.
Real growth rates on the ICT sector for the last period amounted to 8 percent, the telecommunications sector - 8.1 percent, the postal sector - 6.9 percent.
The share of ICT sector and postal services in Azerbaijan's GDP in the first quarter was 1.7 percent. But the active work being conducted in this sector of the country's economy, allow predicting high rates of IT sector development in Azerbaijan in the near future.
For example, as of the first quarter, new automatic telephone exchanges with a total capacity of 3,000 units have been put into operation in Azerbaijan. At present, numbering capacity of automatic telephone exchanges across the country is 1.733.607 units.
According to the Communication and IT Ministry's statistics, at present, the total number of phones for every 100 people across the country is on average 18.6 units. This index in the capital is 36.4 units, other regions of the country - 10.99 units, in rural areas - 7.1 units.
About 68.8 units of telephones fall to every 100 families. This figure is 136.5 units in Baku, other regions of the country - 47.53 units.
CDMA wireless communication network of the industrial associations Aztelekom and "Baku Telephone Communications" covers about 80 percent of the population. The total number of subscribers exceeds 29,000 (Aztelekom network - 20,191, "Baku Telephone Communication" - 8,888).
According to the State Statistics Committee, as of the first quarter, about 70.5 per cent of households were provided with telephones in Azerbaijan. The level of telephone households in major cities of the republic is 89.3 per cent, in rural areas - 47.2 percent.
The number of families, using mobile phones increased by 3 percent and hit 98 percent compared to last year.
In 2010 1,001 mobile users fell to every 1,000 people, in 2011 the figure was 1,006 users. Some people use the services of two or more operators.
According to the state committee, about 44.2 percent of families use satellite dishes to watch TV channels. Some families set up two or more antennas, as well as acquire additional device.
The share of families, using computers, is 1.6 percent.
The computers are often used to connect to the Internet. According to the Azerbaijani Communications and IT Ministry, the volume of Internet traffic in Azerbaijan in the first quarter, increased by 13.5 million minutes, amounting to 152.5 million minutes compared to the same period of last year.
According to the ministry, the volume of outgoing traffic increased by 5.6 million minutes and hit 45.6 million minutes. The volume of outgoing traffic increased by 14 percent, and the incoming traffic - fell by eight percent compared to the same period of last year.
The outgoing traffic volume increased due to the increase in the information volume transmitted over the network of Azerbaijani mobile operator Azercell Telekom. The volume of the transmitted traffic through the operator's network in the first quarter increased by 43 percent (7.7 million minutes) compared to the previous year.
The Ministry stressed the decline in incoming international voice traffic since November 2011. This is stipulated by the growth of broadband connections and the decrease in prices for this type of services. The number of international telephone channels increased by 150 units and reached 9,266 units for that period.
The capacity of the AZNET segment has doubled, reaching 86.8 Gb / s since 2010. The level of Internet penetration, as of April 1, 2012, reached 65 percent.