Armenian broadband access provider UCOM LLC plans to launch fixed line telephony services in the country – possibly before the end of the summer – according to its head of marketing, Manushak Melkumyan, as quoted by PanARMENIAN.Net. Ms Melkumyan told reporters that ‘Currently, works on the net[work’s] construction are [being] implemented, as well as negotiations with international operators of phone communication [services]’. UCOM is ready to begin offering reduced cost tariff plans for end users, saying its wholly owned fibre-optic network ‘should secure its competitiveness’ and allow its to offer competitively priced tariff plans for its services. At launch, UCOM intends to offer fixed line voice telephony in the capital Yerevan, before extending its reach to include other regions where its fibre-optic infrastructure is present. It has already secured the code ‘6045’ to operate voice telephony services and is looking at the possibility of having capacity for 10,000 telephone numbers, she said.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, UCOM LLC was founded in 2007 to deliver a range of traditional and innovative high quality services in the Armenian telecommunications market. Having partnered with equipment vendor Ericsson, Yerevan-based UCOM has built a fibre-optic network based on Gigabit Passive Optical Network (G-PON) technology and today offers telecoms services through its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network, with prices for basic internet access costing AMD12,000 per month for a 256kbps/256kbps connection.