DUSHANBE, March 30, Asia-Plus – On March 29, major Russian cellular operator, open joint-stock company Vympel-Communications (VympelCom), better known as Beeline, announced test-commercial launch of HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access: 3.5G) standard network in Tajikistan.
High Speed Downlink Packet Access 3.5G with a bandwidth of up to 1920Kb/s downlink, 384Kb/s uplink commercially appeared in 2006.
Igor Pilyugin, director general of the Dushanbe limited liability company Tacom, integrated into Beeline as its affiliate, told a briefing in Dushanbe on March 29 that China’s Huawei Softswitch will supply equipment for creation of the 3.5G network in the Tajik capital.
According to him, among their clients there are 700 3.5G users.
A total number of Tacom clients has been more than 70,000 people as of January 1, 2007. Pilyugin said that capital expenses on each client amount to some $100. “More than $7 million have been spent to expand Beeline operations into Tajikistan,” said the Tacom director general, “Of this amount, nearly a half has been spent for creation of the 3G networks.”
“Beeline plans to bring a total number of its clients to more than 1 million people in the coming five-six,” said Pilyugin, “Proceeding from this, Beeline intends to invest more than $100 million in creation of 3G networks throughout Tajikistan.”
We will recall that VympelCom purchased a 60% stake in Tajik cellular operator “Tacom” for $12 million in December 2005. Tacom is licensed to provide cellular communication services in Tajikistan in the GSM-900/1800, UMTS, CDMA-450, and AMPS standards.
As of February 1, 2007, clients of Beeline in Tajikistan have numbered 100,000 people.
