The leading mobile operator is increasing number of LTE based stations at a high pace
There is a growing demand for high-quality mobile internet services at a time when large amounts of data need to be transferred and downloaded quickly, as the society is swiftly moving to online work and education. Aiming to meet the daily communication needs of its users promptly, Azercell Telecom, country's leading mobile operator, is carrying out necessary technical initiatives to improve the quality of its network in Baku and regions. As a result of active work in the area of network enhancement, significant progress has been achieved in LTE service provided by Azercell in the country. The network improvement project implemented since the beginning of 2019 led to an increase in the total number of LTE-backed Radio Base Stations (RBS) from 902 to 2,524. Notably, 845 more stations were commissioned just in the first half of 2020.
Thanks to the work carried out in regions, the LTE network in the country has been further expanded, leading to the geographical coverage increasing from 9% to 68%, and the population coverage from 31% to 85%. Currently, Azercell is working to ensure and improve the quality of Internet traffic. Thus, the LTE spectrum bandwidth is being expanded and the quality of the LTE network in Baku is being improved for this purpose. Moreover, the leading mobile operator is taking measures to expand LTE network coverage in the Baku underground, which is extremely important for subscribers, and make high-speed mobile Internet available in the tunnels. In the framework of the project, necessary works have already been completed at 6 metro stations. In addition, LTE-Carrier Aggregation system has been activated in metro stations, which in turn will provide a higher speed mobile internet service for LTE subscribers.
It is worth noting that the independent benchmarking test conducted by the European company “Systemics” in Azerbaijan last year confirmed Azercell’s top position among the country's mobile operators in terms of data transmission speed, download time and quality parameters in the regions. Another benchmarking research conducted by Ericcson, a world-class telecommunications company, showed that Azercell is at the same level with the best mobile operators in Europe (“Best in class”) in terms of LTE network speed by international standards.