The Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies has signed contracts with the new mobile operators, Ali Abbasov, the Azerbaijani Minister for Communications and Information technologies told Trend.
At the decision of the board of the Communications Ministry held on 28 December, the two companies were issued licenses for delivery of mobile communications services. They were Azerphone joint venture owned by Aztelekom Production Association (10%), the German Siemens (30%) and two British companies (60%), as well as Azerbaijan-US joint venture Catel (operator of CDMA).
According to the Minister, the technical work has been already set up. GSM Azerphone, a new mobile operator, plans to render its services in 6 months, Abbasov noted.
The Minister said that in accordance with the market conditions the tariffs proposed by the new operators should be lower than those offered by Azercell and Bakcell joint ventures.
During the discussions between Siemens and Aztelekom it was revealed that over 2 years they plan to invest $300m. Besides, Siemens will undertake part of investments to be put by Aztelekom.
The major requirement of the project is to ensure mobile communications throughout the country within two years.