ARMENTEL TO INVEST USD127M ON NETWORK DEVELOPMENT

TeleGeography, DC
Sept 24 2007

Armenian mobile operator ArmenTel, now backed by Vimpelcom of
Russia, plans to invest EUR90 million (USD127 million) in its
network and services in 2007, to improve the quality of services and
network coverage. In an interview with Interfax, Dmitry Pleskonos,
executive vice president for CIS development at Vimpelcom, confirmed
that ArmenTel had been given access to the money to use during the
current fiscal year, adding that the Russian firm was happy with the
progress made since it acquired the company at the end of 2006. ‘We
have relatively good growth figures, although we are a little worried
about the number of subscribers on the market,’ Pleskonos said.

ArmenTel is also planning to introduce a flexible tariff policy along
with improving communication quality in order to expand its subscriber
base, he said. ArmenTel expects competition to heat up still further
when the government terminates all kinds of monopoly activity on 1
October 2007.