Azerbaijan, Baku, 25 January /corr. Trend S.Babayeva / Trend 's interview with the Director General of telecommunication CATEL JV, Sadig Humbatov.
- The State share of Azerbaijan in CATEL JV was reported to be fully privatized in January. What changes may take place in the enterprise, which became a fully private company?
- Firstly the changes will take place the structure of the company and composition of the Board of Directors. As the OMCL [which privatized Azerbaijan's State share in the JV] became the only owner of CATEL, investments are expected to be allocated for developing the network of the company and it will favorably affect all activities of the enterprise. The current conditions will fundamentally change the situation of our company in the telecommunication market.
- Did your company undertake any investment obligations before the government for the next years?
- According to the terms of the licensed agreement, signed with Azerbaijan's Ministry of Communications & Information Technologies in December 2006, we are liable to gradually expand the zone of coverage of our services in the whole territory of the country, through providing honeycomb communication services with CDMA standards. However, the government did not impose additional obligations on us with regards to the privatization.
- What amount of investments does the company plan to invest in the economy of Azerbaijan in 2008-2009?
- The company plans to allocate huge investments for the development of its technical base, acquisition of relevant equipment to provide a wide range of additional services, expansion of the coverage zone, signing of roaming agreements, as well as marketing and improvement of the services provided by CATEL.
- Will CATEL increase its market share in Azerbaijan? How does the company plan to do it?
- This year CATEL is planning to increase its market share up to 20% through offering accessible tariffs for conversations, as well as improving the quality of communications and increasing variety of the services. For example, we are going to provide high-speed mobile Internet services to our subscribers.
- Does the company plan to change tariffs for attracting new subscribers?
- Currently CATEL advantageously differs with the accessibility of its tariffs. Let's set an example from our popular tariff of 'Beraber.az', for which no subscriber payment is being made and one minute of the conversations in all directions in the country totals AZN 0.10. However, we are not going to stop with it. I think that in the nearest future, we make our subscribes glad with more attractive tariffs, which may significantly increase our subscriber base.
- As an operator of mobile communications of CDMA standards in Azerbaijan, how do you assess the prospects of development of this technology?
- Firstly I would say that we are the pioneer of the commercial introduction of CDMA technologies in Azerbaijan. We are offering mobile communication services with CDMA 2000 1х. With regards to the development of the market, I can say that CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) is being considered the most probable claimant for the role of base technology for the mobile communication of future. This technology contains a number of advantages from the point of view of quality and variety of service and cost and prompt opening of the network.