Safety on the Line Exposing the myth of mobile communication security

Republic of Azerbaijan QUICK FACTS –AZERBAIJAN ...... Mobile penetration is at an amazing 99% of Land Area: 87,474 sq km * population. Population: 9.077 million GDI per capita, PPP $9,270 (WB, 2010) Indicator33 Measurement Value Computers Per 100 5.7 TLD: .AZ Users Per 100 46 Fixed Telephones: 1.5 million (2010) Fixed Lines Per 100 16 GSM Telephones: 9.1 million (2010) Internet Broadband Per 100 15 Fixed Broadband: 0.5 million (2010) Mobile Subscriptions Per 100 99 Internet Hosts: 0.2 million (2010) WiFi Internet Users: 4.2 million (2010) Mobile Broadband % Internet Users 17.4 International Bandwidth Per 100 4.6kb

Russia At more than nine million, Azerbaijan is a mid-sized Georgia Caspian Sea market for its three mobile networks. Government interference with internet content is observed by some Azerbaijan users, although not all seem affected. The market is Armenia otherwise competitive with part-state and part-privately owned operators. Iran

TELECOMMUNICATIONS MARKET Azerbaijan exercises strict regulation on market access and limited rules on content. There are 3 GSM operators in Azerbaijan – Azercell (the largest), Bakcell (first Pricing Analysis ($US) Azerbaijan All countries surveyed operator in Azerbaijan), and Narmobile (Azerfon), which Rank by Median was the first to be awarded a 3G license. Cheapest Price PRE-PAID Package Pricing In December 2011, Azercell34 announced a project for Monthly Package Cost the students of Nakhchivan State University where Cost per Minute for 0.09 6 0.09 National Call (First 3 Min) China’s ZTE, which provides technological solutions, will enable 4G access for more than 4 thousand students. Price for Data Traffic (Price 0.03 2 0.05 per MB) Azercell has tested 4G technology in 2 universities – Price for One Text 0.04 8 0.02 Gafgaz and Nakhchivan State University in 2011. Message POST-PAID Package Azerbaijan’s three mobile operators are all privately Pricing owned. Some are largely in foreign private ownership, Monthly Package Cost 3.41 5 7.47 although some have ties with the state-owned Cost per Minute for 0.09 7 0.06 Aztelekom and the Aliyev family (the family of the National Call (first 3 min) nation’s current president, in the case of Azerfone) or Price for Data Traffic (Price 0.29 9 0.04 per MB) western operators (Azercell is largely owned by the 35 Price for One Text 0.04 7 0.03 Swedish and Finnish firm of TeliaSonera) . Message

33 www.azstat.org 34 http://gun.az/hitech/22295 Azerbaijan was ranked 2nd cheapest country for access 35 http://www.rferl.org/content/azerbaijan_president_aliyev_daughters_ to mobile data. 105 tied_to_telecoms_firm/24248340.html HANDSET MANUFACTURERS Operator Azercell Bakcell Azerfon MMC LG Brands Simsim, Cin, , Klass, Super Nar3G Other 3GMax Suret Apple Survey 37% 35% 28% MOBILE OS Respondents HTC IN USE Subscribers 4,200,000 2,000,000 1,600,000 Blackberry Mobile Internet 1,000,000 390,000 120,000 Nokia Users Samsung Ownership Foreign Foreign National- Foreign 0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

INTERNET ACCESS MOBILE OS IN USE 74% of respondents used mobile internet. Of these 50% used WiFi to access the internet with 18% paying iOS

for a limited volume of data with their subscription, Blackberry and a further 17% paying for usage. There is still a significant number of internet users accessing the Symbian internet using dial up, but the greatest number of Windows Mobile users access the internet via mobile broadband. Don’t Know INTERNET CONNECTION TYPES 2010 0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

USE OF THE MOBILE INTERNET 18.9% modem (dial-up) mobile telephone Transmitting audio/visual 37% broadband, wire content (DSL etc) Transmitting text content other (ISDN tec) 1.3% (emails, social)

42.8% Accessing audio/visual content Accessing content with many images http://www.azstat.org Accessing primarily text content (websites, emails) 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

106 Safety on the Line Exposing the myth of mobile communication security

TYPES OF MOBILE DOWNLOADS INCLUDING were pro-active trained investigation teams, and 13% CONTENT (LEFT) AND TYPES OF APPS (RIGHT) indicated that they were aware of specialized state agencies responsible for communications regulation never often never often  and supervision. A further 13% of responses indicated that there were commercial agreements with Music 3.1 Free Apps 3.0 specialized organizations. Videos 2.5 Paid Apps 1.7 On July 13th, 2011, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev Games 2.6 Free Content 2.7 stated38 that there were no restrictions on access to the internet in Azerbaijan because of the government’s News 2.4 Paid Content 1.4 desire to promote media freedom, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reported.

CENSORSHIP AND CIRCUMVENTION Only 20% of users indicated that they often encounter In January 2012, Cabinet of Ministers introduced new blocked websites. regulations36 that require every mobile phone to be registered with the state communications authority Only 13% of users have jail-broken their phone and (the Ministry of Communications and Information only 20% have ever updated the firmware on their Technology). All foreigners will also be required to phone. register their phones, since non-registered phones will be cut from service.

In January 2012, the Azeri press37 described plans to create the National Information Security Center within the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. This center should be created in 2012, and its main duties will monitor the countries network infrastructure, announce information about new threats and measures against them, and help other organizations in case of emergencies concerning information security. Little information is available on the country’s monitoring and blocking policies and equipment.

Less than 5% of responses believed that their country had systemic pro-active monitoring, logging, and analysis of communications. 23% believed that there was legislation requiring blocking and monitoring with limited supervision, 18% indicated that there

36 http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64827 37 http://lent.az/xeber_85684_Az%C9%99rbaycanda_%C4%B0nfor masiya_T%C9%99hl%C3%BCk%C9%99sizliyi_%C3%BCzr%C9%99_ 38 http://www.rferl.org/content/president_praises_azerbaijan_internet_ Milli_M%C9%99rk%C9%99z_yarad%C4%B1lacaq freedom/24264938.html

107 PHONE BRANDS39

Phone E2152 E3 X2-01 Asha-200-Duos X101-Duos Manu Samsung Nokia Nokia Nokia Nokia Released Sep 2010 Jan 2011 Feb 2012

Data GPRS/EDGE C10 GPRS/EDGE C32 GPRS/EDGE C12 No Sensors Dual-SIM Dual-SIM Dual-SIM Internet Yes Email No (lo-speed) GPS No No No No Camera 1MP 5MP 1MP 2MP No WiFi No Yes No No No

CONCLUSION With relatively high mobile and regular availability, Azerbaijan is an opportune market for actors in the mobile internet freedom area. Limited use of circumvention technology is observed despite a majority of participants reporting some form of government blocking and monitoring. The government is actively pursuing more control, as is evidenced by recent initiatives imposing stringent registration requirements on mobile phones using the countries network infrastructure.

FURTHER INFORMATION Ministry of Communications - www.mincom.gov.az State Statistical Committee - www.azstat.org Bakcell – www.bakcell.com Azercell – www.azercell.com Azerfon - www.narmobile.az

39 Data and images from www.gsmarena.com

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