PRESS: ARMENIA TO ANNOUNCE TENDER FOR THIRD GSM LICENSE WED
Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
July 15, 2008 Tuesday 12:15 PM EET
Armenia’s telecommunications regulator is expected to announce
Wednesday a tender for a third GSM license, Mariam Stepanyan, a
spokeswoman for the regulator said, Vedomosti newspaper reported
Tuesday.
The starting price is 10 million euros, Stepanyan said. Bidders are
required to have experience in the wireless sector and invest at
least 200 million euros in their mobile network in the country over
two years.
MegaFon, Russia’s third biggest mobile operator, is expected to bid,
sources in Armenia’s government and a local wireless carrier told
Vedomosti.
But MegaFon’s First Deputy Chief Executive Alexei Nechiporenko told
the daily the company is not interested.
Armenia’s two GSM operators, ArmenTel and K-Telecom, are subsidiaries
of Russia’s VimpelCom and MTS, respectively.
Mobile services penetration in Armenia was 62.5% as of May 31,
according to AC&M Consulting. K-Telecom had 1.4 million customers
and ArmenTel had 600,000.