KEEPING PACE WITH THE WORLD

Over the past ten years, Azerbaijan has secured a leading regional position in the development of its space industry, as well as the introduction of fourth and fifth generation mobile technologies, creation of broadband infrastructure, DATA centres, and so on. Today, the main efforts of government in developing information and communication technologies (ICT) are focused on using the accumulated potential for integration into regional and global ICT projects.

Participation of the leading vendors and IT companies in the 24^th International Telecommunication Exhibition BakuTel 2018 once again demonstrates the attractiveness of the domestic IT sector, which remains a promising direction for the Azerbaijani economy and maintains a positive development trend.

Dynamic development

High level of investment and revenues of the IT sector, which is ten times greater than the dynamics of development in the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan, demonstrates the dynamic development of Azerbaijan's telecommunications sector. Thus, during three quarters of 2018, the volume of investments attracted to the ICT sector reached ₼225 million, which is 69% greater than the indicator of the corresponding period of 2017. In the same period, the sector revenues increased by 7.7% reaching ₼1.2 billion.

According to government forecasts, a comparable trend can be maintained in the next few years. "Due to the expansion of the broadband network coverage, the development of mobile services and the growth of revenues from the use of satellites in 2019, the growth rate of the communications sector will be 6.2%. In 2020–2022, the average annual growth in communications will be 7.1%," Deputy Minister of Economy Shirzad Abdullayev said during a recent discussion of the draft state budget for 2019.

Dynamic growth will continue in the expansion of BakuTel coverage as well. In 2018, 230 companies from 20 countries of the world took part in the exhibition, once again organised by Iteca Caspian. "The sector represented in this exhibition is very important in terms of business activity, innovation development, and education. This area is one of our priorities. It is no coincidence that we have been holding such an exhibition for twenty-four years. The number of participating companies is growing each year, and more than half of them are Azerbaijani companies. This suggests that we are ready to work in this direction in order to develop the country and create new jobs, because the oil sector does not create jobs," President Ilham Aliyev said in his interview with the Russian TV channel Russia-24.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the exhibition, the Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan, Ramin Guluzadeh, noted that Azerbaijan is working to increase its ICT potential and create a transit and regional information highway.

At the meeting of regional communications ministers, which took place at the 2018 BakuTel exhibition, Mr. Guluzadeh noted that the sectoral departments of Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed to create a consortium and a working group to further develop the ICT sector, in particular, to increase cooperation in satellite, mail, cyber security, development of telecommunications infrastructure, etc.

"The existing infrastructure of four countries contributes to the development of the telecommunications sector in the rest of the region. The resources of both satellite communications and fibre optic infrastructure can be used for information exchange. Along with infrastructure development, partner countries intend to pay special attention to the issue of cybersecurity," Turkish Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Mehmet Cahit Turhan, said.

Participants paid special attention to the issues of close cooperation with private ICT companies, liberalisation of conditions for their participation in joint projects. Such cooperation contributes to the advancement of local projects of Azerbaijani IT companies to the regional level and, thanks to close integration with partners, ensuring access to new technologies and, as a result, increasing the profitability of the industry.

Second breath for TASIM

It is expected that during the next meeting of communication ministers of Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Turkey scheduled for February 2019, the attendants will discuss the implementation of a large-scale project initiated by Azerbaijan ten years ago, namely the development of the Trans-Eurasian Super Informational Highway (TASIM). Elmir Velizadeh, Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, speaking at the Caspian Innovation Conference held during the Caspian Innovation Conference, said that many countries, including Afghanistan and Bulgaria, were interested in this project.

TASIM provides for the integration of more than 20 countries in Europe and Asia - from Frankfurt to Hong Kong - by a high-speed information network. Following the signing of the Baku Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of this project in 2013, Russian Rostelecom, Kazakhstan KazTransCom, Turkish TurkTelecom, China China Telecom, and Azerbaijani AzInTelekom were involved in the project. Thus, the operators of the TASIM Consortium have already signed a protocol on the preparation of a feasibility study for the project.

During the first (completed) stage of the project, the leading regional countries and operators were engaged in attracting communications companies ready to invest in the main transit Internet infrastructure connecting the West and the East. At the second stage, also mandated by the UN, it is planned, using the infrastructure created, to provide online connection at reasonable rates for Eurasian countries that do not have direct access to international Internet sites.

Despite the ongoing global energy crisis and the associated financial problems, which have eventually delayed the implementation of the project, the involved countries intend to accelerate the processes of infrastructure development and begin commercial operation of the TASIM.

As to the expansion of Azerbaijan’s participation in regional projects, Baku and Tehran have reached an agreement on the joint production of the Earth probing satellite. "Currently, both countries have established close cooperation in the field of satellite communications, and we are ready to expand this cooperation to cover the joint development of spacecraft," said Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Muhammad Javad Azeri Jahrumi.

Space resources

Considering the prospect of regional cooperation in the space sphere, in recent years Azerbaijan has gained considerable experience in this area. Currently, Azerbaijan’s satellite operator Azerkosmos manages two communication satellites, Azerspace-1 and Azerspace-2 (the latter was put into orbit in September 2018), as well as the low-orbit optical satellite Azersky, capable of imaging a 36-square thousand square meters m with a resolution of up to 1.5 m. Moreover, in accordance with strategic partnership with Airbus Defence and Space, Azerkosmos can use the resources of Pléiades 1A and 1B satellites, whose optical capabilities provide resolution of images up to 0.5 m.

With the launch of three satellites into orbit, Azerbaijan joined the world space community, getting considerable profits from the successful commercial exploitation of space resources. As mentioned at the BakuTel 2018 exhibition by representatives of Azerkosmos, the capacity of the new Azerspace-2 satellite will also be used to provide 600 schools in the mountainous regions of Azerbaijan with satellite Internet. The main purpose of Azerspace-2 together with the first communications satellite will be to cover the growing needs of the states of the region in satellite capacities. According to Azerkosmos, commercial operation of Azerspace-2 will begin in the first quarter of 2019: the satellite will be activated for 20 years and revenues from its orbital services will reach $400 million.

In January-October 2018, Azerspace-1 and Azersky jointly ensured $22.4 million in revenues: Azerkosmos services were exported to 23 countries, while France, Malaysia, UAE, Germany, Georgia used the majority of the company's services in the same period. According to the results of 2018, it is expected that Azerkosmos OJSC earns more than it earned in 2017, when the commercial operation of two satellites provided only $23 million in revenues.

In the medium term, it is expected that the revenues from the operation of a low-orbit optical satellite will grow due to the increased export potential in processing and selling satellite images. Thus, Azerbaijan is planning to create data centres for processing and providing services based on satellite images under the State Program for the Development of Remote Monitoring Services for the Earth via the Azersky satellite for 2019-2022, recently approved by the relevant presidential decree.

Internet bands

An equally important area with a potential for broad international cooperation of Azerbaijani Internet providers, as well as mobile operators, is the further development of optical and wireless broadband Internet services. In 2018, the total bandwidth of international Internet channels in Azerbaijan has been increased to 820 gigabits.

"Broadband infrastructure has long been considered a critical type of infrastructure. Our government has taken consistent steps to build broadband infrastructure in Azerbaijan in terms of improving existing network and ensure its sustainability, as well as implementing projects that involve wide use of GPON and LTE technologies," Minister Guluzadeh said at the first Caspian Innovation Conference. The minister also noted that according to the Strategic Roadmap for the Development of Telecommunication and Information Technologies in Azerbaijan, it is planned to allocate a 700-800 MHz frequency range for LTE services. "Therefore, we are conducting technical preparatory works, as well as developing a package of proposals on regulatory changes to allocate radio frequencies through auctions, according to international experience," R. Guluzadeh said.

During the exhibition, information sessions on the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) in various areas were also held: booth visitors were presented various presentations on new digital technologies, smart cities and management, the role of digital technologies and telecommunications in agriculture and other areas. The concept of IoT includes all autonomous devices connected to the global network and remotely controlled via the Internet: automobiles, kitchen and household appliances, smart sockets, lighting systems, surveillance cameras and security systems. It is expected that in the near future, the IoT resource may be actively used in Azerbaijan in the areas of business, education, medicine, agriculture, etc.

State telecom operators of Azerbaijan, Aztelekom LLC and Baku Telephone Communications, are also planning to develop the direction of IoT, working to create a working group to regulate the Internet of Things sphere and, in particular, to address the issue of allocation of radio frequencies for these resources at the state level.

Plans of cellular operators include expanding the 4G network in the regions of Azerbaijan, providing the latest services and new business solutions, as well as introducing the next-generation 5G services, which are faster, more economical and efficient. The development of broadband networks should be designed for the transfer of large volumes of information, since the plans of mobile operators include the development of the IoT sphere, namely, the provision of Smart Home services.

As to the results of BakuTel 2018, high dynamics of the development of the Azerbaijani ICT sector is a completely objective reality. Today, local IT-structures are only a step away from the new stage of development: more complete convergence in the world market and complicity in the international division of labour, with all the associated advantages.