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France Telecom's Orange Receives Full Armenian Mobile Licence

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  • France Telecom's Orange Receives Full Armenian Mobile Licence

    World Markets Research Center
    Global Insight
    November 20, 2008




    France Telecom's Orange Receives Full Armenian Mobile Licence

    by Peter Boyland


    France Telecom's Orange has officially received its Armenian mobile
    licence, following an emergency meeting of the country's regulator,
    the Russian REGNUM news agency reports. Orange successfully bid 51.5
    million euro ($65US million) for the full GSM and 3G spectrum licence
    in October (see Armenia: 8 October 2008: ). Under the terms of the
    15-year licence, France Telecom, operating under the Orange brand, is
    obliged to provide GSM coverage to 43 cities in Armenia within two
    years.

    Significance:Orange firmly believes in the potential for the Group's
    development in the country, recently committing 200 million euro to
    network rollout costs (seeArmenia: 13 October 2008: ). The operator
    will now compete with the dominant K-Telecom, owned by Russia's Mobile
    TeleSystems (MTS), and Armentel, owned by Russia's VimpelCom, which
    have nearly two million subscribers between them. This level of
    penetration, in Armenia's population of around three million, means
    the country is one of the more mature markets of Eurasia, with mobile
    growth being stimulated by a poorly-developed fixed-line
    infrastructure. Orange's entrance into the market will clearly
    stimulate competition, as it will put pressure on the existing Russian
    duopoly to lower tariffs and improve service quality, while bringing
    France Telecom's huge mobile expertise to a promising new market.
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