OREANDA-NEWS. May 05, 2010. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is supporting wider penetration of internet services in Azerbaijan with a USD 4 million equity investment in Datacell JSC, a wireless broadband service that already serves the capital, Baku.

On May 5 Dino Shiatis leading banker of EBRD informed about it in the conference, held on this occasion, that these are the first investments by EBRD in Azerbaijani telecommunication sector.

“We are glad that we have chance of assistance to development of Internet-services in Azerbaijan. We hope that our investments will allow to raise a competition in ICT field and will give to Azerbaijanis the best access to information services,” D. Shiatis said.

According to General executive director of Datacell Ramiz Sharifov,   volume investments EBRD in Azerbaijani telecommunication sector will allow Datacell to continue growth of subscriber base and to expand coverage of wireless mobile Internet service elcell, which is  popular in Azerbaijan now,” R. Sharifov said.

EBRD invested USD 4 million in shareholders’ capital of Datacell JSC. The agreement also envisaged to appoint by the bank one of five members of board of directors of Datacell.

Datacell, which was  established in 2005, operates under the elcell brand name. The company’s services are based on the latest wireless data communication technology HC-SDMA iBurst, providing high speed reliable wireless fixed and mobile internet access at competitive prices. In addition to broadband, Datacell also offers a range of other high quality internet-based services for banking sector, trade, transport and other industries.  40% of users are corporate clients and 60% - individuals.