On Thursday, December 22, an online meeting was held between the general director of Aztelecom LLC Claus Muller and the Managing Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on the countries of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus of Matteo Patrona, within the framework of which a loan agreement was signed between LLC “Aztelecom” and EBRD in order to successfully continue the implementation of projects for reconstruction of communication infrastructure and improve the quality of service in Azerbaijan.
According to the contract, the bank plans to allocate a loan of $ 50 million (85 million manat). The loan will consist of two trenches of 25 million US dollars each.
EBRD funds will be aimed at financing the implementation of the most modern broadband infrastructure in more than 280 thousand households in the regions of Azerbaijan. The main goal is to expand the zone of coverage of the network of broadband access in Azerbaijan and increase the level of quality of telephone communication and the Internet in the regions.
Thanks to this financial support, the company will improve the speed, capacity and throughput of the planned expansion of the network, thus reducing the digital inequality between the city and the rural areas. This will allow Aztelecom to provide high -quality, uninterrupted Internet and increase the average Internet speed throughout the country.
The company successfully underwent a difficult legal examination conducted by the EBRD when issuing a loan, and demonstrated compliance with the strict requirements of the bank in areas such as financial health, safety, ecology and gender equality. Aztelecom has become one of the few companies in the country and the region that managed to sign a loan agreement with the EBRD without a state guarantee. This fact itself is a clear indicator of the positive result of the reforms in the field of corporate governance carried out in the company in 2021-2022.
as part of the online Azerbaijan project, implemented by the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport and the main operator of which is Aztelecom, by the end of 2024 it is planned to build a broadband network covering the entire territory of the country with a high-speed Internet. It is planned to replace the existing ADSL equipment with GPON equipment, which operates with the IMS modern platform, replacement of the old copper main cable infrastructure with optical cables and the construction of an optical distribution network. This technology significantly improves the quality of the Internet and makes it possible to provide additional services, including IPTV.
First, the project in 2017 and to date, about 766 thousand households throughout the country have already gained access to the optical Internet, and 539 thousand of them – within 2021-2022, which emphasizes the multiple increase in the deployment rate of the new infrastructure. In general, by the end of the project, it is planned to provide all households on the territory of the country with a high -speed Internet through GPON and other broadband technologies.