Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend S.Babayeva, S.Ilhamgizi / The Azerbaijan Ministry of Information Technology and Communications forecasts reduction in the prices for the mobile communications in Azerbaijan, in 2008, Ali Abbasov, the Azerbaijani Minister for Information Technologies and Communications, stated on 23 December.
"The prices may decrease as a result of tough rivalry in the mobile market of Azerbaijan," the minister said. He did not tell the exact forecasts on the price reduction. According to Abbasov, the rivalry will be toughened as a result of the intensification and strengthening of the work by the third GSM operator - Azerfon, which commenced its activities on 21 March 2007. "The activities of the third operator will be consolidated," the minister said
There are four mobile operators functioning in Azerbaijan, including three operating on GSM standards - Azercell Telecom, Bakcell and Azerfon and one on CDMA standard - Catel. The number of mobile communications subscribers total 4mln people.
