Azercell summarized results of its last year’s operation
On February 27, Azercell Telecom held a regular annual press conference dedicated to the results of 2013, earlier declared the Year of ICT in the country. The company says 2013’s main achievement was the record number – 20% expansion of the network associated with the unprecedented growth in demand for the company’s services, with particular weight on the mobile Internet. So, in 2013 Azercell Telecom installed more than 1,200 new base stations to provide uninterrupted quality of voice and Internet services throughout the country. Thus, at the end of 2013, the network of Azercell Telecom included 5,500 base stations, while over 260 of them exclusively serve LTE (4G) network, covering the city of Baku and Absheron peninsula and along with the high-speed Internet, also support voice communication through CSFB solutions.
Based on 2013 measurement data of Ookla Net Index, Azercell provides the highest speed of mobile Internet in the country. Moreover, the rise of mobile Internet consumption rate among Azercell customers constitutes more than 120%, while every second subscriber is an active user of the mobile Internet.
Efforts and investments directed to the expansion in 2013 the company links with the need to maintain and increase the quality of service for existing customers and those new subscribers, that are about to join 4.5 million subscribers family of Azercell Telecom after the recent launch of the Mobile Number Portability service.
2013 was also a remarkable year for Azercell due to some other innovations in the telecommunications market of the country as the integration of ASAN-İmza platform with mobile technology that enables signing of documents and transactions using mobile devices. Also at last year’s Bakutel exhibition Azercell presented a unique innovation based on M2M technology project – “Smart House”, the system, which allows remote control of all household processes via mobile devise. Along with the new, more attractive 3G and 4G bundles, over the course of last year the company also introduced a variety of other interesting solutions as regional campaigns, permanent, attractive regional tariff plan, a variety of discount campaigns, as well as roaming discounts. In particular, it worth noting, that only in 2013 Azercell reduced prices for roaming calls with more than 100 operators worldwide.
Constantly improving the level of customer service in 2013 the company continued expansion of its service centers both in the capital and regions. Today, more than 560 different locations across the country are ready to provide customers with a full range of client services. At the moment, the mobile network of Azercell covers 99.8% of country’s population, and the number of subscribers increased up to 4.5 million people.
In 2013, the company paid 111 million manat of taxes to the state budget (1 billion manat during 17 years of operation). 84.5 million manats was invested last year in the development of the telecommunications sector in Azerbaijan (1 billion manats during 17 years of operation). As in the years before, Azercell remains the country’s largest taxpayer in the non-oil sector.
During the year the company invested 1 million manat to the professional development of its employees. In 2013 Azercell also paid great attention to social projects with contribution of 0.4 million manat, supporting the first project of its kind for boarding schools across the country above many other interesting initiatives. Supporting the development of the younger generation Barama Innovation Center has implemented two major international Start-up competitions for young entrepreneurs.
In 2013, Azercell retained the title of the most popular brand in the social networks with the highest ratio for on-line customer service (according to the rating of “Socialbakers”).
The company has successfully continued its activities in the new year of 2014 upon the introduction of the mobile number portability service, developing and presenting range of new rates and discount campaigns in favor of the existing and future subscribers.
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Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996 and since the first years sustains a leading position on the market. Azercell introduced number of technological innovations in Azerbaijan: GSM technology, GPRS/EDGE, 24/7 Customer Care, full-time operating Azercell Express offices, mobile e-service “ASAN imza” (ASAN signature) and others. With 53% share of Azerbaijan’s mobile market Azercell’s network covers 99,8% of the country’s population. By the end of 2012 the number of Azercell’s subscribers reached 4,5 million people. In 2011 Azercell deployed 3G and in 2012 the fourth generation network – LTE in Azerbaijan. The Company is the leader of Azerbaijan’s mobile communication industry and the biggest investor in the non-oil sector. Azercell is the part of the TeliaSonera Group of Companies, which has subsidiaries in more than 20 countries with total number of 186 million subscribers and 27 thousand employees.