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CATEL to double investment in Azerbaijan

19 June 2007 13:42 (UTC +04:00)

- How would you introduce CATEL?
- Caspian American Telecommunications, LLC (CATEL was established in 1997 by Azerbaijani Communications and Information Technologies Ministry and a United States consortium Omni-Metromedia Caspian Ltd. (OMCL). Since 2006 CATEL JV has started to provide mobile services on the basis of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), which is a mobile digital radio technology that transmits streams of bits and whose channels are divided using codes (PN sequences and permits many radios to share the same frequency channel. This technology meets up-to-date standards, is environmental-friendly durable and high-quality.
- What about your clientele?
- Our customers are more than 25,000 in number. We expect the number of clients to double by this yearâ€™s end.
- Which services does CATEL offer? Do you plan to branch out services?
- CATEL delivered presentation of a new product-FONEX in April. FONEX enables customers to benefit from 10 kopecks per minute tariff package throughout Azerbaijan without any subscription fee. We will continue to cut call prices. The product also offers mobile internet access at an upload speed of 153 Kbps. Besides, FONEX, in the nearest future, will include WAP, SMS Gateway, Call register, Voice Mail and other services. Also, I would like to note that customers need CDMA-supported handsets in order to use CDMA technology. Handsets of this kind are available in several shops in Baku. We plan to expand sales coverage in the nearest future. CATEL keeps up high quality and protects privacy in communications.
- What would you say about investment planes in future?
- CATEL has invested $25 million in Azerbaijan but we are planning to double this figure by the end of this year. The investments for the past period of 2007 reached $7 million. The investment will expand the coverage of communications services in the regions, will further improve quality and variety of services.
- Which regions does CATEL intend to reach this year?
- At present the coverage area includes Baku, Absheron, Sumgait, Gandja, Mingechevir, Yevlakh, Ali Bayramli, Hajigabul, Shamkir and Nabran. We are working on expansion of the network and the services will reach northern, southern and western regions by the end of this year.
- With which operators do you have roaming deals?
- So far, we donâ€™t have any roaming relations but there are plans for international roaming agreements in the future. CATEL has good cooperation with a number of foreign companies such as Chinaâ€™s Huawei, Russiaâ€™s CBOSS, Latviaâ€™s SAF, the United Statesâ€™ Omni Communications Inc. and Alcatel, Alvarion, Stratex Networks, NEC, UTSarcom and others. Also, CATEL is a full member of International Telecommunications Union and CDMA Development Group and received ISO 9001:2000 certificate in 2006. /APA-Economics/