THIRD MOBILE OPERATOR IN ARMENIA PRIMED FOR $318US MIL. INVESTMENT WITHIN TWO YEARS
Michael Lacquiere

World Markets Research Centre
Global Insight
July 15, 2008

Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission is to consider on
16 July 2008 the terms for the tender to select the country’s third
mobile operator, according to press reports. Any local or foreign
company pre-qualified by the Commission will be allowed to participate
at a cost of 10,000 euro ($15US,899). The minimum cost of a bid for
the licence will be 10 million euro. The licence itself will last 15
years and the Commission has indicated that the successful bidder must
be able to invest at least 200 million euro over the next two years.

Significance: Although it is unlikely that Armenia’s third GSM licence
will be issued by August 2008, as was once proposed, momentum is
gradually building for the eventual launch of a third operator, with
the result of the tender now expected in October 2008. Armenia’s Deputy
Transport and Communication Minister Vruir Arakelvan has indicated
that interest in the new licence has been expressed by companies
from Russia, Europe and Iran, although Russia’s third-largest mobile
operator, MegaFon, has ruled itself out of the running (seeArmenia:
16 May 2008:). Armenia’s two current GSM operators, Vivacell and
Armentel, are owned by Russian giants Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and
VimpelCom respectively.