WORLDWIDE MARKET RESEARCH REPORT - CISE

EC/IST FP6 Project No 026920
Work Package: 6
Type of document: Report
Date: 20.12.2007
File name: OP_WP6_D37_V1.0.doc Version: 1.0
Title: Worldwide Market Research Report 347 / 356
Afghanistan general assessment: very limited telephone and telegraph service; many Afghans
utilize growing cellular phone coverage in major cities.
domestic: telephone service is improving with the licensing of several wireless
telephone service providers in 2005 and 2006; approximately 8 in 100 Afghans own a
wireless telephone; telephone main lines remain limited.
international: country code - 93; five VSAT's installed in Kabul, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif,
Kandahar, and Jalalabad provide international and domestic voice and data
connectivity.
Armenia general assessment: system inadequate; an outdated telecommunications network
inherited from the Soviet era; now 90% privately owned and undergoing modernization
and expansion; mobile-cellular services monopoly terminated in late 2004 and a
second provider began operations in mid-2005.
domestic: the majority of subscribers and the most modern equipment, including
paging and mobile-cellular services, are in Yerevan.
international: country code - 374; Yerevan is connected to the Trans-Asia-Europe
fiber-optic cable through Iran; additional international service is available by microwave
radio relay and landline connections to the other countries of the Commonwealth of
Independent States and through the Moscow international switch and by satellite to the
rest of the world; satellite earth stations - 3.
Azerbaijan general assessment: inadequate; requires considerable expansion and modernization;
teledensity of 15 main lines per 100 persons is low; mobile cellular penetration is
increasing and is currently about 40 telephones per 100 persons.
domestic: fixed-line telephony and a broad range of other telecom services are
controlled by a state-owned telecoms monopoly and growth has been stagnant; more
competition exists in the mobile-cellular market with three providers in 2006; satellite
service connects Baku to a modern switch in its exclave of Naxcivan.
international: country code - 994; the old Soviet system of cable and microwave is still
serviceable; satellite earth stations - 2.
Bahrain general assessment: modern system.
domestic: modern fiber-optic integrated services; digital network with rapidly growing
use of mobile-cellular telephones.
international: country code - 973; landing point for the Fiber-Optic Link Around the
Globe (FLAG) submarine cable network that provides links to Asia, Middle East,
Europe, and US; tropospheric scatter to Qatar and UAE; microwave radio relay to
Saudi Arabia; satellite earth stations - 1.
Bangladesh general assessment: totally inadequate for a modern country; fixed-line telephone
density of less than 1 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular telephone density of 13 per 100
persons.
domestic: modernizing; introducing digital systems; trunk systems include VHF and
UHF microwave radio relay links, and some fiber-optic cable in cities.
international: country code - 880; landing point for the SEA-ME-WE-4 fiber-optic
submarine cable system that provides links to Europe, the Middle East and Asia;
satellite earth stations - 6; international radiotelephone communications and landline