Azerbaijani communications ministry plans to issue 3G licenses to mobile operators

The government charges 11,000 manat for licensing.

All three operators will be issued license. Frequency to implement this technology will be allocated by the State Agency for Radio Frequencies. Under the terms of issue, the technical equipment of the GSM operators should meet national standards, which is one of the most important criteria for obtaining a license, the ministry said.

The ministry requires operators to prepare the network to launch 3G before issuing a license.

National operators have confirmed their readiness to deploy next generation networks in 2006. However, it depends when the government will allocate necessary radio frequency resource and issues licenses. All three operators successfully tested the possibility of 3G technology in the inner corporate level.

The opportunities of the 3G were demonstrated at the telecommunications exhibition BakuTel-2008 for the first time. Presently, data transmission services in mobile communication networks are implemented by Data-card (data transfer rate up to around 384 kbit /s) and EDGE technology (up to 236 kbit /s). The introduction of the 3G significantly will increase the network bandwidth opening up opportunities for introducing innovative communications services (mobile TV, video telephony, internet access, sending and receiving voluminous content).

At present, operators have a large subscriber base, ready network and network infrastructure, and fully meet the requirements set for the holder of license.

/Trend Capital/