Georgian Gov’t announces competition to find high-speed Internet provider
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Georgia’s Ministry of Economy is searching for a company to lay fiber-optic cables all over the country so Georgian citizens can access high-speed Internet.
The Ministry has announced a competition to find the appropriate local or international company to complete the works. Already the Ministry has started receiving applications from companies interested in being part of the High Speed Internet for Everyone project, which envisaged connecting everyone in Georgia with high-speed Internet.
Parties interested in being involved in this project are now invited to apply for the competition before the May 5 deadline. Once the deadline has passed and the Ministry has evaluated all candidates, it will reveal the winning company by June 14, 2015.
The selected company will be tasked with establishing a trunk cable system that will ensure top quality Internet for 2,000 settlements in Georgia. The company responsible for creating the system will be obliged to provide the whole of Georgia with central networks in the course of three years. After this happens, providers will be able to bring Internet to individual users.
The Ministry said once this project was implemented, the entire country would have access to high-speed internet.
Through the Government’s calculations, the country will be provided with high-speed Internet by the end of 2017.
Implementing this project was important from a social and economic point of view, said Deputy Minister of Economy Natia Mikeldaze.
In January this year the Government showed a strong interest in providing the entire country with high-speed Internet. Since then the Government has actively worked on the High Speed Internet for Everyone project.
Currently it is estimated about 40 percent of the Georgian population have access to Internet.
Latest data from the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) revealed that the number of Internet subscribers in Georgia has increased in recent years. In 2010 there were 252,131 subscribers who browsed internet through wired internet, and as of October 2013, the number of these subscriptions had increased to 434,969.
In terms of regional accessibility, IDFI data showed Internet access was most prevalent in capital Tbilisi, (with 273,392 subscriptions), followed by Imereti with 42,198 subscriptions.
In Georgia’s regions, access to internet was "uneven”, noted IDFI. Out of these regions, wired internet was least accessible in Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, Guria and Mtskheta-Mtianeti. By October 2013, a total of 4,928 wired internet subscriptions were recorded in these three regions.
By 2017 the entire country will have access to high-speed internet, promised Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.
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