BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 21
By Sadraddin Aghjayev - Trend:
Azerbaijan is developing the telecommunications industry at the international and regional levels within the Eastern Partnership initiatives, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Elmir Velizade said, Trend reports on April 21.
“Such development will make the services in this sphere more accessible for the population, business, and state agencies,” the deputy minister added.
"The agreement on regional roaming, which will be signed with the EU countries, will serve this purpose,” Velizade said. “Our citizens will be able to take advantage of favorable tariffs in the future when traveling to Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova.”
“Moreover, acceptable tariffs on international roaming will be applied among mobile communication operators working in Azerbaijan and mobile communication operators of the countries which I have mentioned, both for voice calls, SMS, as well as for mobile data (internet)," the deputy minister said.
“The regional roaming agreement will create new opportunities for Azerbaijan,” Velizade said.
“If we look into the future, every day we are witnessing how rapidly telecommunications are developing, which means that the range of telecommunications services is expanding and changing,” the deputy minister said.
"This is bringing dynamics into our life, facilitating work and communication," Velizade said. "I am sure that our users will be able to use these services even while during roaming. The current development allows us to make this possible."
"Over the next five years, roaming tariffs will gradually decrease to 87 percent," the deputy minister said.
"Today we cannot imagine our life without communication and the internet," Velizade said. "The decrease in the cost of international mobile roaming services among the Eastern Partnership countries to 87 percent means that we will approach the tariffs which are applied for the same services in the European area."
"This will make it possible in the near future," Velizade said. "This will make the use of reasonable and affordable tariffs for international roaming with the EU countries possible in the future. Of course, this will be beneficial to both mobile communication operators and our citizens who use their services."
The deputy minister stressed that at first glance, the reduction in roaming prices may seem unattractive from the point of view of revenues of mobile communication operators, but an increase in the number of users and traffic will lead to a positive balance.
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