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A total Internet outage in Azerbaijan occurring amid the events unfolding around the Ministry of National Security (MNB) was not a mere coincidence, Azerbaijani MP Zahid Oruj told the agency Sputnik Azerbaijan.

The parliamentarian does not exclude that someone could have used the fire to delete certain data from the archives. “The problems with the Internet could be caused because of someone trying to delete data kept in the database. The versions vary but it is difficult to find the exact reason,” Oruj told Sputnik Azerbaijan. 

The agency notes that Mushvig Amirov, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies, had earlier told the media that the Internet switched off practically across the whole territory of Azerbaijan on Monday because of a fire on one of the cables of connection of the primary provider Delta Telecom to the DATA-centre.

The Azerbaijani MP says the incident once again highlighted the problem of providing a reliable Internet system in the country. He pointed out that the banks and other state sectors stopped their operations as a result of the outage. This once again highlighted the problem of information security of the country. The government needs to seize the Internet system from the monopoly of an agency.

Haqqin.az notes that Delta Telecom is the main provider in the country. It provides services to state agencies, corporate customers, banks and natural persons. Having essentially appropriated almost all the rights of control of all the Internet and telephone traffics long ago, the company became a monopolist in the sphere with the support of the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies.

“Delta Telecom’s monopoly was discussed a lot, and there were many complaints of its activities from the secondary providers, who were strongly pressured by the monopolist. In mid 2000s, when all the subscribers literally cried because of the high prices of the secondary providers’ Internet services, Delta Telecom started to sharply reduce the tariffs of the traffic supplies to those providers. It publicly demanded that they adequately reduced their pricing,” Haqqin.az writes.

According to the website, the monopolist’s right was to set a high level of responsibility of security in the company. “But how can high-tech security be discussed, when the only Azerbaijani primary provider could not cope with an ordinary fire?” Haqqin.az writes, highlighting that the provider, on which the whole Azerbaijan depends, was powerless against an ordinary burning of cables.

Instead of carrying out a thorough analysis of the incident, the company goes on pulling the wool over the people’s eyes. Moreover, Iltimas Mammadov, recently appointed an acting Minister of Communications and High Technologies, decided to protect himself from possible attacks instead of carrying out such an analysis. He just stated that the problems with the Internet inside Azerbaijan did not affect the traffic flow to other countries, the website notes.

Haqqin.az wonders how the Ministry could allow one company’s monopoly in the market, and if it could not cope with that why it did not see that a reserve system be absolutely independent from the DATA-centre itself. “Was it really just hearing and reading other people’s conversations and chats, meanwhile seizing millions of manats from the budget, what that ministry really did?” the website highlights.

Despite the telecommunication operator Delta Telecom’s claims that the consequences of the November 16 fire had been smoothed out and that the Internet supply was totally restored, Azerbaijan was against switched off from the Global Net on 17 November at 16:00. The reasons for the outage are unknown, still this reinforces the suspicions of a planned subversion, the website stresses.

According to Minval.az, Delta Telecom provided the 90 percent of Azerbaijan’s Internet, while AzerTelecom provided only the 10 percent. The Internet in the country is utterly monopolised. The main traffic is concentrated in Delta Telecom, and is partly transmitted to the provider Bakinternet, further being sold to other providers. This is how the chain works. Most of the population uses ADSL Internet, which means that the net is transmitted through old telephone wires and the quality of such a connection is low.

“The leadership of the Communications Ministry has more than once stated that fibre optic Internet would soon be provided across the whole territory of the country and that the problem would be solved once and for all, with everyone enjoying stable and uninterrupted connection. For that, 350 million manats was already allocated, and fibre optic cable main lines were supposed to have been completely set in Baku by the end of 2015. Two more years were needed for the rest of the territory of Azerbaijan.

However, crisis hit the country, the oil prices dropped and, sadly, there is no fibrous Internet. Some of the districts in the capital receive optic Internet, while everyone else is waiting,” Minval.az writes and adds that the Delta Telecom accident exposed the whole vulnerability of Azerbaijan’s Internet structure.
The website also writes that Communications Minister Ali Abbasov’s recent dismissal, the arrests of the ministry’s high-ranking officials, facts of corruption and illegal activities prove that there are problems in the office. Osman Gunduz, the president of Azerbaijan Internet Forum public union, believes one of the reasons of the Internet outage was the monopoly right over that type of communication and the lack of alternative channels.

The Internet outage occurred in Azerbaijan on 16 November at 16:10 of the local time. Practically, all of the Internet providers and mobile operators in Azerbaijan suffered from the total outage. Reportedly, only the Bakcell operator's users could access mobile Internet.

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Total Internet outage in Azerbaijan paralyses bank, travel agencies and transport work in Baku