Baku hosts international workshop on "Tariffs applied in the field of telecommunications"
A two-day workshop on “Tariffs applied in the field of telecommunications” began its work today with the participation of specialists from the countries of the European Union.
The workshop, supported by the European Commission and organized by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, was attended by representatives of the ministry, as well as Aztelecom LLC, Baku Telephone Communication LLC, State Administration of Radio Frequencies, Radio Television and Satellite Communications Production Association.
Head of the Department of Finance and Economic Analysis of the Ministry Gulru Huseynova made a report.
She said that Azerbaijan closely cooperates with the European Union in many areas, including in the field of telecommunications. The Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies implements a number of joint measures under the European Commission’s Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Instrument (TAIEX).
“The project submitted by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies towards the improvement of legislation and procedures on tariffs applied in the field of telecommunications in our country, as well as the liberalization of existing tariffs have been adopted by the European Union. The workshop is also organized within the framework of this project,” the head of the department said.
Then Gulru Huseynova informed the participants in detail about the work carried out in the ICT sector, the results achieved. She stressed that the “National Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2014-2020” and the “Strategic Road Map for the Development of Telecommunication and Information Technologies in the Republic of Azerbaijan” approved by the presidential decree set forth ambitious targets for the development of the field.
“Today, 80 percent of the country’s population are Internet users, and 72 percent are broadband Internet users. Depending on the geographical location and the relief of the country, wide opportunities for the provision of postal and telecommunication services to the population have been created in most of settlements. The latest technologies are being introduced in the telecommunications network of the capital and regions. Since 2010, 100 percent of the country’s population has been provided with mobile communications. At the same time, as a result of liberalization activities carried out in the sector, the share of the private sector increased from 67% to 81% in the last 15 years. In order to increase the spread of Internet services and support their development in the country, licenses for the provision of Internet services were eliminated in 2000. Moreover, in 2016 the analog TV broadcasting was completely terminated in the republic and a full transition to digital TV broadcasting (an open package of 10-12 channels),” was implemented,” Gulru Huseynova added.
At the workshop, experts in the field of telecommunications from the European Union (Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Italy) made reports on various topics.
During the event, the participants exchanged views and experience on such important topics as tariff regulation in the European Union countries, obligations stipulated in the legislation, determination of the cost-based tariffs in the field of telecommunications, formation of tariffs for fixed, mobile and retail services, regulation of tariffs of operators with significant market power (SMP) and their obligations, clarification of tariffs for new generation technologies (4G, LTE, WIMAX, GPON, etc.).
