Azerbaijan, Baku, 2 September / Trend corr. S.Babayeva, I.Khalilova/ Azerbaijan's mobile operators are studying the market to reveal the efficiency of application of 3G services, Azerbaijani Minister for Communications & IT Ali Abbasov said on 2 September.
"They [operators] are developing a business plan and are studying the market, since such projects require gross expenses," he said.
Abbasov forecasts that the operators will make concrete proposals by the end of the year regarding application of 3G frequencies.
There are four mobile communication operators in Azerbaijan, with three of them (Azercell Telecom, Bakcell and Azerfon) based on GSM and one (Catel) on CDMA. The total number of cellular communication subscribers exceeds 5mln in Azerbaijan.
Previously, the three GSM operators stated their wish to render 3G services in the country.
After coordination, the frequencies will be officially allocated by the State Radio Frequency Commission.
3G is the third generation of mobile phone standards and technology, superseding 2G, and preceding 4G. It is based on the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) family of standards under the International Mobile Telecommunications programme, IMT-2000.
3G technologies enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephony, video calls, and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment. Additional features also include HSPA data transmission capabilities able to deliver speeds up to 14.4Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8Mbit/s on the uplink.