German experts help Georgia pave the way to high-speed internet

The Government of Georgia is teaming up with German telecommunications company to better connect 2,000 residential settlements in Georgia with high-speed Internet.

The project to develop high-speed Internet all over the country will be implemented by Detecon, a division of German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom.

A document marking this agreement was signed today between Detecon and Open Net, which is an organisation within the Communications, Informational Technologies and Innovation Department of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia.

The project will be carried out with financial support of the Cartu Charity Foundation - a charity fund established and financed by Georgian tycoon and former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.

"For us it is one of the most important projects to implement in Georgia,” said head of the Ministry’s Communications, Informational Technologies and Innovation Department Irakli Kashibadze.

Open Net is starting preparatory works to run the project in near future while Detecon should project the network and carry out modelling for establishing high-speed Internet in Georgia. They should design a model which enables us to cover with high-speed internet as much territory as possible with the certain budget,” he said.

According to Government calculations, the country will be provided with high-speed Internet by the end of 2017.

In January this year the Government revealed it had a strong interest in providing the entire country with high-speed Internet. Since then it has actively worked on the High Speed Internet for Everyone project.

Currently it is believed about 40 percent of the population have access to Internet.

Latest data from the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) revealed the number of Internet subscribers in Georgia had increased in recent years. In 2010 there were 252,131 subscribers who browsed the Internet via wired internet, and as of October 2013, this number had increased to 434,969.

In terms of regional accessibility, IDFI data showed Internet access was most prevalent in capital Tbilisi with 273,392 subscribers, followed by Imereti with 42,198 subscribers.

In Georgia’s regions access to internet was "uneven”, noted IDFI. Findings showed wired internet was least accessible in Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, Guria and Mtskheta-Mtianeti regions. As of October 2013, a total of 4,928 wired internet subscriptions were recorded in these three regions.