Free Wi-Fi throughout Azerbaijan Not Expected

Baku / 23.04.18 / Turan: The European Commission decided to provide access to free Internet throughout the EU, as well as in Norway and Iceland. At the first stage, 1,000 settlements will be equipped with Wi-Fi transmitters, each of which will receive 15,000 euros for this from the Euro budget. In Azerbaijan, which does not aspire to become a member of the EU, there is no free Internet throughout the country and it is not expected. In any case, the author of this article has never been able to use free Internet in the Khagani garden in Baku (although the optimistic announcement about this service is posted there).

"Free Wi-Fi for the population of Azerbaijan will not appear soon, since the government is not financially ready for it. For the free Internet to appear in all cities and villages of Azerbaijan, the government must conclude a contract with providers. Only the technical part of the solution will cost about 100 million manat," the newspaper Echo reported in 2016.

And is it possible to provide the free Internet in separate places? Exactly one year ago, in March 2017, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies announced that free Internet would be provided in the locations of architectural monuments, places for a denser crowd of people, selected for the initial stage of the Public Wi-Fi project.

In fact, this service, common in developed countries and even in Georgia's Batumi, has been successfully implemented in our country in Sabir Square in Baku, Baku Airport and Baku Boulevard, the participants of the forum Free Internet inform. In the territory of the Fountain Square, Wi-Fi works "so-so" and only on private property, that is, in cafes and restaurants of Baku. Visitors, when they come in, immediately ask the waiter for an access code to the Internet. But in this, as readers understand, there is no merit of the Ministry of Communications.

On the territory of the Baku Seaside Boulevard, the Internet works with a different degree of reliability. As reported by the Ministry of Communications, the Boulevard installed equipment of the Chinese company Huawei, which provides 122 access points to the Internet. Checking the effectiveness of the new system, the forum attendant reported: "From the Sea Port to Park Boulevard it works well, on the speed test it is somewhere from 20 to 11 mbps, from Park Boulevard to the Tower it is a little weaker - somewhere from 12 to 4 mbps. YouTube does not get stuck, and the live stream is also normal."

In the subway, even paid Internet works poorly, and it's still early to speak about quality free-of-charge Internet though the installation of a free Wi-Fi system was made before the Islamic Games.

There are drawbacks, but the work to expand the Access Point zone in the country is conducted within the framework of the Public Internet project implemented by the Ministry of Communications and the Baku Telephone Communication (Baktelecom) Production Association. The desire to provide for the needs of millions of tourists affects the situation. Especially many visitors to Baku arrive on the days of Formula-1 automobile racing. Free Internet equipment is installed in the Izmir and Narimanov parks, Dede Gorgud Park, Huseyn Javid Park, Seaside Boulevard, National Flag Square, Icheri Sheher State Historical and Architectural Reserve, Heydar Aliyev Center Park, Sahil Square, Sabir Park, Khagani Park, Akhundov Park, Winter Boulevard, Officers Park, Samed Vurgun Park and Mugan Baglary Park. The Chinese have supplied a complicated and not always immediately operational user identification system. Besides there are few posters reporting the availability of this service and the method of connecting to Access Point, but since the service is still free, the Baku people not used to the state bounties use it with gratitude.

There is absolutely no free Internet in other major cities of Azerbaijan, not to mention rural and district settlements. The Ministry of Communications does not promise to provide free Wi-Fi territories outside the capital, and the entire Baku will not be equipped with this service in the coming years.-0-