France’s Alcatel to build network for Armenia’s K-Telecom

France’s Alcatel to build network for Armenia’s K-Telecom

Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
August 3, 2005

MOSCOW, Aug 3 (Prime-Tass) — France’s Alcatel has concluded a contract
on building a GSM network for Armenia’s mobile operator K-Telecom,
Alcatel said Wednesday.

The exact amount of the contract was not disclosed, but Alcatel said
that it is worth several millions of euros.

Alcatel plans to build the network together with Greece’s Intracom.

Alcatel is to install over 200 base stations with the operational
capacity of 400,000 numbers.

Operation of the first stage of K-Telecom’s network began on July 1.

K-Telecom, an affiliate of Karabakh Telecom, is controlled by Lebanese
businessman Pierre Fattouch and is to provide its services under the
VivaCell trademark in Armenia.

K-Telecom has already invested more than U.S. USD 75 million in its
network in Armenia and projects its subscriber base at 300,000 users
in 2005.

Earlier national telecom company ArmenTel has held a monopoly
to provide GSM services in Armenia. However, in November 2004 the
Armenian government decided to make amendments to ArmenTel’s license,
depriving the company of its exclusive right to provide GSM, mobile
satellite and mobile radio communication services in the country.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress