ICON TARGETS 10,000 ARMENIAN WIMAX CUSTOMERS IN FIRST YEAR OF OPERATION
Michael Lacquiere

World Markets Research Centre
Dec 4 2008

iCON Communications has indicated that it is targeting a WiMAX
subscriber number of 10,000 within a year of launching operations,
reports ARKA. The company will begin testing its network from 1 January
2009. It will carry out state-by-state access to the network, beginning
in the centre of the capital Yerevan and expanding throughout the city
by April 2009. It aims to cover the entire country by the end of 2010,
at a likely total cost of around $10US million. The roll-out has been
delayed because of problems in Belgium with the supply of equipment
from Alcatel-Lucent.

Significance: iCON’s 802.16e-2005 (Rev. E) WiMAX network will offer
broadband internet in the first phase and VoIP and VPN services in
the second phase. The operator plans to target both residential and
business customers, as well as government organisations. Given the
poorly developed fixed-line infrastructure in Armenia, wireless
networks have the potential to offer broadband while saving on
the costs of physical infrastructure deployment. As well as iCON,
Comstar and Clearstream have also obtained WiMAX licences in Armenia
(see Armenia: 21 October 2008: ).