Construction of national network of high-speed Internet in Armenia to be launched in 2011

Yerevan, July 19, /Gayane Mirzoyan / PanARMENIAN News/.

Construction of national network of high-speed Internet in Armenia to be launched in 2011.

President of the Artsakh Republic Bako Sahakyan met General Manager of Karabakh Telecom CJSC Ralph Yirikian to discuss the company’s investment policy, tariff revision as well as humanitarian programs carried out in the republic. Artsakh Republic Prime Minister Ara Harutyunyan was also attending.

PanARMENIAN.Net - Construction of the national network of high-speed broadband Internet was in the focus of a discussion on E-Society and Innovation for Competitiveness Project. The discussion brought together representatives of the WB, RA Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Transport and Communication, as well as communication operators and representatives of IT and telecommunication organizations. As RA Minister of Economy Nerses Yeritsyan stated, the project aims to direct the continuously growing incomes from Internet services provision for the network development in regions. The program envisages providing Armenia’s residents with 100 Mbps high-speed broadband Internet connection.

Juan Navas-Sabater, lead ICT Policy Specialist at the Global Information and Communication Technologies Department of the World Bank announced that the Armenia E-Society and Innovation for Competitiveness (EIC) Project will be submitted for approval of the WB Board in October 2010. The $24-million program to be implemented in 4 years consists of 2 basic parts: development of infrastructure of e-society in Armenia and strengthening of the private sector. As Navas-Sabater noted, the project will provide young IT specialists in Armenia with an outlet to international markets, including the Silicon valley.

GNC Alfa has completed the first stage of IP/MPLS network construction with 10Gbps network capacity. Networks in Yerevan and 16 Armenian towns have been put into operation. Coverage of 29 towns is envisaged till yearend. GNC-Alfa is a telecommunications network services operator in Armenia. The Company owns a fiber-optic network passing along the Armenia-Iran gas pipeline. GNC-Alfa network, built on technologies of American Juniper Networks, is designed to provide wholesale transport network services to fixed and mobile operators and ISPs, as well as transit services via Armenia.

Director of E-governance Infrastructure Implementation Unit OJSC Arthur Ghulyan said that around 100,000 electronic passports and 250,000 identification cards will be purchased within 2010. “An identification center will be established in the Police,” said Ghulyan. He added that there are 61 registration centers in Armenia and all of them will be equipped with modern facilities and software. “A competition will be organized on the basis of cooperation between the private and state sectors. The World Bank will secure a part of the project’s financing, while the rest will be provided by a private organization. The company will be able to cover the investments within 3-5 years through the sale of electronic passports and ID-cards,” Ghulyan said.

Besides, Certification Center will be established through the WB’ funds, while the further operation of the center will be also based on cooperation of the private and state sectors. Biometric passports with electronic data are envisaged to be introduced in Armenia from April 2011. Two types of passports will be introduced – ID cards for the internal use and biometric international passports. *

Yerevan will host DigiTec 2010 international exhibition on October 29-31. E-governance services provided by the RA government will be displayed as part of the exhibition. Leading local and foreign companies will present their solutions and modern technologies during a range of seminars. ArmRobotics open championship will also be organized. Besides, Armenian Open Development Contest hosting script writers, programmers and animators will be held for the first time as part of DigiTec 2010. DigiTec exhibition has been organized in Armenia since 2005 by the Union of Information Technology Enterprises and Enterprise Incubator Foundation. 12,000 people visited the exhibition in 2009. Meanwhile, 15,000 people are expected to attend the exhibition this year.