Azerbaijan to liberalize market of broadband communications services

Baku. 30 December. REPORT.AZ/ Currently, over 50% of broadband services in Azerbaijani fixed network are provided by the small number of market subjects. Liberalization of broadband network market may be one of the main stimulating factors to strengthen communication in the country.

Report informs, Strategic Road Map for the development of telecommunications and information technologies declares.

According to the international practice, countries of the world carry out measures to effectively regulate participants' interests by creating competitive environment in the markets. Therefore, trends observed in the Azerbaijani telecommunications market must be adapted to this trend in the medium and long term. However, shares of market participants with high specific weight on fixed broadband services decreased in the region in 2010-2015, these participants expanded the subscriber base in Azerbaijan and increased this figure to 66% in 2015 from 40% in 2010.

"According to the international practice, liberalization of the market, leads to optimize prices of services, increase amount of investment and quality of services. Growth of liberalism among market participants, improving the competitive environment will allow to reduce average price of international calls by 48%, broadband network prices by 32%. After implementation of liberalization in the international practice, international calls increased in the range of 32-104%, while prices decreased in the range of 30-90%," the document states.