Azerbaijan Not Ready for Transition to Fully Digital Broadcasting

Azerbaijan is not ready for the transition to fully digital broadcasting. The Deputy Minister of Communications and High Technologies Elmir Velizadeh told the media the digital broadcast signal covers about 99% of the population, and for the remaining percent it is necessary to solve a number of organizational and technical issues.

One of the main problems is to stop analog broadcasting, but today the content of digital broadcast is available for viewing by all citizens of the country (currently, all segments of the population receive a social package of 12 channels, and broadcasting of digital content is carried in MPEG-4 format).

The official said that analogue switch-off will begin with large settlements, and for the transition to digital broadcasting subscribers have to buy a decoder for 40-50 manats.

He also touched the quality of access to the Internet - the study of complaints received by the Office showed a variety of reasons not always associated with providers. "This factor, including the speed of information transmission, may be affected by the subscribers' telephone lines, incorrect installation of the switch gear for several fixed phones, computer virus infection, etc. But we are trying to improve the quality of Internet services to meet the needs of end users," he said.

According to official data, the level of Internet penetration across the country is 75% with 65% of access to broadband services. --17D-