Azerbaijan Expects 3G Licenses by End of September

The Azerbaijani Communications and Information Technologies Ministry expects to be able to award 3G radio spectrum to the country's three mobile network operators by the end of next month, reported local news media.

The government had previously only committed to an award sometime before the end of this year. The licenses were originally expected to have been released late last year, following the settling of unspecified technical problems, but nothing further was heard.

Each operator will be charged 11,000 manat (US$13,681) for their licenses.

The Mobile World database notes that there are three GSM operators, along with one CDMA operator in the country. At the end of Q1 '09, there were just over 5.8 million subscribers in the country - representing a population penetration level of 72%.

On the web: Mobile World - Trend News

Posted to the site on 23rd August 2009