COMSTAR TO GET ACCESS TO LONG-HAUL COMMUNICATION CODES IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN, June 8. /ARKA/. The Russian Comstar United Telesystems (UTS)
plans to get access to long-haul communication codes in Armenia,
the company’s Vice-President Victor Koresh reported.

"We were licensed in the first quarter of 2008 to access long-haul
communication in Armenia and we plan to get the codes soon," he said
at a press conference in St. Petersburg.

At present, Comstar works out a cable laying project that will improve
the quality WiMAX services in Armenia.

According to Koresh, local telecommunications market is cornered,
the country having only one communications cable which was out of
order on June 8. As a result, half of the Armenian population could
not have an access to the internet.

He pointed out several possible scenarios of local telecommunications
market development. One of them is to lay out a cable along the gas
pipeline (Gazprom project) through the territory of Iran. "Another
option is to lay out a cable along the Armenian-Georgian railway,"
Koresh said.

"Anyway, we intend to find new solutions, but we are not ready to
make a decision yet."

In his turn, Comstar President Sergei Pridantsev said the company
plans to implement the project after 2008.-0–