According to the International Telecommunications Union, Azerbaijan has been in the list of countries with the most rapidly growing ICT sector for the last ten years.
All residential areas were provided with telephones in Azerbaijan for the first time in the CIS.
The fixed telephone network has been fully transformed into electronic form. A single numbering system was used in the country. One public and two private fiber-optic backbone networks covering the entire country were laid.
The total capacity of international Internet channels increased by several times and reached 200 Gb / s. Many regional information servers were installed. As a result, Azerbaijan has become an exporter of Internet services in the region. Regarding large ICT projects implemented in Azerbaijan, construction of Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway (TASIM), Azerbaijani satellite program projects, development of broadband Internet, construction of "electronic government" etc. are among them.
According to the Azerbaijani Communications and IT Ministry, the amount of income on the ICT sector and postal services in Azerbaijan increased in 2012 increased by 17.3 percent and amounted to 1.503.4 billion manat compared to 2011. The share of income, received on the ICT sector and postal services, hit 1.9 percent of GDP.
Real growth rates for the ICT sector as of 2012 amounted to 16.6 percent, the telecommunications sector - 17.4 percent, IT sector - 8.6 percent, the postal sector - 18.2 percent.
Around 75.7 percent of revenues obtained from the ICT sector and postal services, fell to the share of the private sector in 2012. Around 65.3 percent of income from the telecommunications sector accounted for mobile communication, increasing by 14.1 percent. Currently, 110 mobile phones fall to 100 people in Azerbaijan. The process of introducing the latest 4G technology started.
The structural units of the Azerbaijani Communications and IT Ministry invested 110.5 million manat in the communications sector in 2012, the ministry's report as of 2012 said. In general, around 325.3 million manat or 2 percent of the total investment volume of the country's economy were invested in the sector of information and communication technologies.
The assembly capacity of the telephone network in the country increased by more than 28,400 numbers, exceeding 1.75 million units through investment projects.
The number of computers for every 100 people, as of 2012, amounted to 20 units, Internet users - 70 people, 50 of them - broadband Internet users.
Internet
The level of Internet penetration as of 2012 increased by 5 percent to 70 percent in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has been holding a leading position among the CIS countries in terms of broadband Internet penetration for the last three years. The operations were conducted in 2012 to improve the quality of data transmission services. As a result, capacity of international communication channels increased by 2.2 times and prices reduced by 35 percent.
So, today the cost of connecting to the Internet at a speed of 1 Mbit / s is about 3 percent of the average wage, while it costs an average of 20 percent of wage in developing countries.
According to the Communications and IT Ministry's report as of 2012, the volume of incoming Internet traffic fell by 72.4 million minutes, amounting to 651.4 million minutes in Azerbaijan in 2012 compared to the same period of 2011.
According to the ministry, the outgoing traffic volume increased by 8.3 million minutes and hit 191 million minutes.
"Aztelekom" Production Association laid 2,000 kilometers of fiber-optic communication line in Azerbaijani regions within the project of developing broadband Internet. More than 500 kilometers of cable were laid by commercial providers. At present, the operations on laying optical infrastructure are underway in almost all regions of the country. Optical infrastructure expansion will increase the number of broadband Internet users. At present, the number of broadband connections in Aztelekom's network reaches 102,000, while as of the beginning of the year the figure was about 25,000.
Aztelekom has developed the next stage of the project developing broadband Internet in 2013-2015. It is planned to provide optic cable to the end user.
E-government
According to the presidential decree No 429 dated May 23, 2011 on "Some measures in the sphere of organizing e-services in state bodies", the central executive bodies ensured rendering e-services. These services cover social, public, scientific, cultural and other spheres of public life.
Around 36 organizations joined "Electronic government" portal created by the Communications and IT Ministry to use electronic services of state bodies via "single window" principle. They render 168 e-services through this portal.
Using an electronic signature created conditions to expand using electronic services and to render more qualitative and safer services. Around 2,800 electronic signatures have been given to 28 state agencies by the National Center of Certification Services operating under the ministry since 2012. A mobile platform of issuing e-digital signature was launched in the country. As of 2012, around 5,500 digital signatures were issued.
Today, many services rendered by state agencies in direct contact with the public and payment envisaged for them are implemented in electronic form. The online- registration of entrepreneurship, submission of electronic tax and customs declarations, documents confirming the rights to real estate, provision of pensions, receiving social assistance, appeals for providing with the telephone and Internet connection, as well as the adoption of required documents in electronic form are a good example.
Digital television
As a result of measures undertaken by the Communication and IT Ministry in connection with the transition to digital broadcasting in the territory of the Republic in accordance with the "Program of developing and using digital broadcasting system DVB-T in the territory of Azerbaijan", 93 percent of the population are covered by digital broadcasting in accordance with the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers No 26 dated February 10, 2011.
According to this program, analogue broadcasting will be stopped in 2013. It is planned to pass to digital broadcasting. The ministry is spreading educational information in the media to fully prepare the population for digital broadcasting. The work is underway. Local producers and entrepreneurs were informed not to produce or import TVs into the country which do not support digital broadcasting. Today, digital televisions and decoders for digital broadcasting are being sold in Baku and regions of the country. Moreover, the request has been made for the government to provide the poor with decoders at the expense of the state.
Nine transmitters were installed to expand the coverage zone of digital TV in Azerbaijan. The total number of digital television transmitters used in the Republic reached 43.
Currently, the work is underway to provide remote areas of the country with digital TV signal. Around 10 additional transmitters with DVB-T standard were bought. The operations have been launched to install the equipment. It is expected to fully pass to digital format after the republic's population is fully provided with digital television signal.
Poor people are expected to be provided with decoders upon preferential conditions within the transition to the new standard of broadcasting. The matter rests in more than 120,000 families which receive targeted assistance. Five million manat will be required for this purpose. This issue is being discussed by the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers.
The coordination operations on frequency assignments envisaged for TV and radio broadcasting are underway with neighboring countries as part of the transition to the new broadcast standard. Currently, coordination issues have been fully resolved with Russia and partly with Georgia. It is expected to complete the coordination operations with Georgia by the end of this year. Regarding Armenia and Iran, the coordination issues are solved with these countries through the International Telecommunication Union.
Using the new standard DVB-T2A will be a promising innovation in the project of passing to the digital broadcasting standard. The second generation of terrestrial digital broadcasting system DVB-T2 can be used for fixed, mobile and other reception and its payload is by 30-50 percent more compared to DVB-T previous version in the same conditions.
There are 25 television channels, 11 of which are republican, 14 regional in Azerbaijan. Moreover, there are 15 radio programs. There are 12 cable operators and over 20 Internet TV.
Entrepreneurship development in ICT
According to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee, in 2012, the number of organizations operating in the sector of communications and information technologies increased by 13.1 percent to 1,680 organizations or 2.1 percent of the total number of legal entities in the country. Around 161 new legal entities were opened in IT sector in 2012. Only one business project was closed.
The role of the Regional Innovation Zone (RIZ) project is great in the development of the ICT sector in Azerbaijan. RIZ creation will serve the development of small and medium entrepreneurship, human resources and expansion of the software production in the country.
Not only local, but foreign companies will have great interest in this area by using favorable conditions. The production of IT products will significantly increase.
Foreign companies have great interest in Azerbaijan now. So today, 10 of 20 top-rated ICT companies such as Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Apple, Intel, Oracle, Google, Nokia-Siemens Networks, Ericsson operate in Azerbaijan and are actively involved in implementing various projects in the country.
One of the main advantages of the Regional Innovation Zone project in Azerbaijan is broad examining of both positive and negative experience in creating these zones in the world. One of the measures aimed at creating the Regional Innovation Zone in the field of ICT, is the presidential decree on "Creating the High Technology Park". High Technology Park was created to ensure sustainable economic growth and increase competitiveness, expand information and communication technologies, based on the achievements of modern science and technologies, research and creation of modern complexes for the development of new information technologies. The necessary work is being conducted in this direction.