Only three months after launching its service, the France Telecom start-up mobile operator Orange Armenia has signed up more than 200,000 subscribers. France Telecom was awarded its licence in November 2008 and the launch of the Orange Armenia service had been eagerly awaited by Armenian customers.
Prior to this launch Armenia had only two operators, Viva-Cell-MTS and ArmenTel (Beeline), and competition and market innovation were limited. Despite these drawbacks Armenia currently has a mobile penetration rate of around 83 per cent but, with a population of some 3.2 million, France Telecom believes there is strong potential for growth. France Telecom has invested around US$148 million in rolling out a 2G/3G network which covered over 80 per cent of the population at launch.
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