Armentel not planning to launch 4g/LTE network any time soon

YEREVAN, January 18. / ARKA/. ArmenTel telecommunications company (trading as Beeline) said today it wan not planning to launch the 4G/LTE (Long Term Evolution) network any time soon.

Speaking at a news conference ArmenTel CEO Igor Klimko said despite this the company is negotiating with Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) the allocation of appropriate frequencies, adding however, that the point is that there are no free frequency range for a full launch of 4G network.

‘We are negotiating how we can clean the frequency range because it has a lot of common with digital television and this is not a question that can be solved in a day or two,’ he said.

He said instead the company will work to use more effectively the unused resources still available in 3G network with the focus on increasing the speed.

“Our clients using 3G network are able to get 1 megabit/sec. speed which is not bad even for remote regions of the country where people still have problems in getting connected to Internet via fixed telephone lines,’ Klimko said.

Another Armenian telecommunications company VivaCell-MTS launched late last year a pilot test 4G/LTE network in Yerevan encompassing downtown city and the Komitas neighborhood, boasting a theoretical capacity of download speeds up to 150 Mbps and upload speeds up to 50 Mbps. VivaCell CEO Ralph Yirikian said the telecommunications company has already invested $7.5 million in building the 4G/LTE network and will invest $55mln more to expand the network in 2011.

Armenia’s third telecommunications company, Orange Armenia, said earlier it was technically ready to launch the 4G network , but will do so only making sure that it will be accessible to broad segments of the population. -0-

Read the news first and discuss them in our Telegram

20:30 01/18/2011