K-TELECOM FOLLOWS ARMENTEL INTO ARMENIA’S 3G SECTOR
by Michael Lacquiere
Global Insight
October 10, 2007
Armenia’s leading mobile operator by subscriber numbers, K-Telecom, has
been awarded a 3G licence by the country’s Public Services Regulatory
Comission (PCRC). The 10-year licence allows K-Telecom to offer 3G
services throughout the country.
Significance:Earlier this week a 3G licence was awarded to K-Telecom’s
rival in the mobile market, VimpelCom-owned Armentel (seeArmenia:
9 October 2007:). These developments will expand the sphere of
competition in the country’s mobile sector, in which K-Telecom had a
two-thirds market share at the end of the first half of 2007, with
986,000 subscribers, while Armentel had the remaining third, with
471,000 subscribers. Following its purchase of K-Telecom last month,
Russia’s Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) promised to deliver new, innovative
services and solutions, and the imminent arrival of 3G services
suggests that the battle in Armenia will extend beyond subscriber
numbers and into the sphere of value-added service uptake and revenue
generation. MTS’s Acting Vice-President and Head of Business Unit MTS
Foreign Subsidiaries, Oleg Raspopov, noted in a press release that
the addition of 3G services to the company’s Armenian portfolio would
"strengthen our leadership position", emphasising that the operator
had already gained experience in the sector through its 3G licences
in Russian and Uzbekistan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
