A BRANCH OF FRANCE TELECOM HAS ALL GROUNDS TO WIN TENDER ON CHOICE OF CELLULAR OPERATOR IN ARMENIA
ArmInfo
2008-10-06 17:05:00
ArmInfo. The Orange SA company, which is a branch of France Telecom,
has all grounds to win the tender for the right to provide mobile
communication services in Armenia, Armenian Minister of Transport
and Communication Gourgen Sargsyan said at a briefing after opening
the packages of pricing facilities, Monday.
Gourgen Sargsyan said that Orange’s pricing facilities turned out
to be the highest – 51 mln 500 thsd EUR. He explained that the price
for the licence is the most important and crucial term of the tender.
Officially the winner’s name will be announced within 3 days, the
minister said. He pointed out that the winner will receive the licence
for providing mobile communication services in Armenia in mid December
2008. The minister noted that the new operator will start its activity
in Armenia within 6 months. At the final stage of the tender, along
with France Telecom, contending for the position of the third cellular
operator were CEO Blackrock Communications (Great Britain, Ireland),
which proposed 31mln 600 thsd EUR for the licence, and M&A Tele2 AB
(Sweden), whose pricing facilities made up 45 mln 600 thsd EUR.
According to the tender, the third operator must have relevant
experience and ability to invest at least 200 million in development
within 2 years.
The following codes will be provided to the third operator +374 (0)
55 and +374 (0) 95. If the operator fails to use the provided codes
by at least 60% by the end of the year, the PSRC has a right to take
back the unused numbers. The third operator will be provided with GSM
frequency and an opportunity to provide 3G services including voice
and data transmission.
The frequencies will be provided within the following limits: 880-890,
925-935, 1745-1765, 1840-1860, 1910-1915, 1950-1965, 2140-2155 MHz.
To recall, the specified three companies passed the pre-qualification
stage of the tender announced on July 19, 2008. To note, the mobile
operator and internet provider Orange SA has 90 mln subscribers and
provides services in 23 countries. At present GSM service providers
in Armenia are ArmenTel CJSC (100% subsidiary of Russian VimpelCom
OJSC with trademark Beeline) and K-Telecom with trademark VivaCell,
80% stake of the latter belong to Russian MTS operator. By the data
of the companies, the number of subscribers was up 45.5% over 2007
to 1,824,344. Both operators have about 1.8 mln subscribers, while
the whole population of the republic currently makes up 3.2 mln people.