Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 16 /Trend H.Valiyev/
In January-September 2013, some 142.6 million manats were invested in Azerbaijan's information and communications technologies (ICT) and postal communication sectors, the Azerbaijani Communication and Information Technologies Ministry's report on the results of nine months said.
According to the report this amount is 22 per cent higher than the figures for the same period of 2012 and makes up 1.2 per cent of the total volume of investments made to the country's economy.
The volume of investments made by enterprises and structures of the ministry amounted to 39,867,400 manats, the report said.
In the nine months, some 31 new automatic telephone systems (ATS) were commissioned in Azerbaijan, as well as expansion work carried out at 19 ATS and 31 TV and radio transmitters including 22 digital TV signal transmitters being commissioned.
Aside from this, some 11 post offices including two in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic were built in Azerbaijan, seven administrative buildings and 14 post office buildings were reconstructed. As a result of this, the total assembly capacity of the country's public telephone network reached 1,790,122 units, according to the report.
During this period, fibre-optic cables to a total length of 673.3 kilometres were laid. Some 546.9 kilometres of these lines were laid by the Aztelekom Production Asssociation (PA), 41.4 kilometres by Baku Telephone Communication PA and 85 kilometres by private companies.
Aztelekom PA invested 14.5 million manats for the modernisation of regional telecommunication units and 5.4 million manats for the modernisation and expansion of the Baku Telephone Network.
During this period Aztelekom's number capacity was increased to 3056 units. Baku Telephone Communication's number capacity was also increased to 12,064 units.
Currently the total number of phones per 100 people is 18.65. In Baku this figure is 37.7 and in the country's other regions it is 11.61 units, as well as 7.21 units in rural areas.
According to the ministry, the mobile penetration in the country remained at the same level and makes up 110 per cent.
The official exchange rate for Oct.16 is 0.7843 AZN/USD.
