"Azeronline" replies ISPA and the war of Internet providers continues

A new leap in the war between Azeri Internet providers was made yesterday when Azeronline answered the ultimatum of its rivals – 21 Internet providers united under the banners of the Internet Service Providers of Azerbaijan association.

In its reply "Azeronline" stated that it is a private company not relating to "Azercell Telecom", which means that the accusations of the ISPA are baseless and that Azeronline will continue its policy of lowering down prices for its customers. It also noted that its customers receive for 99 thousands Manats 200 hours of Internet access and not an unlimited one as were assuring ISPA members.

Morever, "Azeronline" stated that if ISPA will proceed with its threats to block Azeronline’s IP addresses and impede exchange of e-mails between "Azeronline"s clients and ISPA’s then "Azeronline" will be pushed to start legal procedures against ISPA and will bring them to court.

Finally, today the Minister of Communication and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov decided to intervene and try to cool down the heat of the battle, acting as a peacemaker between two rivaling parties.

"It is right that "Azeronline" drove other 21 Internet providers into a difficult situation by reducing its prices. On one hand, we try to lower the prices and on another hand, very rapid reduction of prices by only one of operators complicates the situation of other ones," said Abbasov.

The minister added that in case of drastic reductions of prices a monopoly could occur and other providers could be pushed out of the Internet market, which could have a negative impact on the overall development of the Internet in Azerbaijan.

Abbasov carefully noted that the problem must be solved in favor of all parties involved. The goal is to lower the overall prices and at the same time to eliminate unfair advantages between providers so that they may compete fairly on the Internet service market of Azerbaijan.

To solve the problem and bring to an end the war of Internet providers the Ministry plans to hold a roundtable with participation of all providers and representatives of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technologies.

Meanwhile, none of the parties has replied to the Minister's proposal yet.

EV