IT Landscape in Armenia

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Telecommunication:

Each year the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) publishes a World Telecommunication Development Report.[1]  The ITU data is based on a stated population of Armenia being put at 3.54 million—recognizing that some estimates place this number as low as 1.5 million, less than half of the 3.54 million used by International Telecommunications Union. As defined in the International Telecommunications Union Report, Armenia is considered a “Low Income” country; Low Income defined as those countries with a Gross National Product (GNP) per capita as being US$ 785 or less. The International Telecommunications Union reflects the annual per capital GDP for Armenia at US$ 429.

Cellular – Subscribers and Tariffs

In 1999 there were 7,000 cellular subscribers in Armenia providing a teledensity of 0.20 (subscribers per 100 inhabitants).  Connect costs are high compared tit neighboring countries as is the use of the Cellular phones.  As a result, the percent of total cellular use is running significantly behind neighboring countries.  In many developing countries Cellular systems are used to substitute land-line based build out as it’s typically faster and can be less expensive – especially in low-density areas.  This clearly is not the strategy in Armenia

International Traffic

Considering the small population in Armenia the amount of outgrowing traffic is considerable-with average of per capita and per line considerable higher than neighboring countries (16.0 minutes per inhabitant; 101.9 minutes per subscription).  This higher number is likely due to the large number of Armenians living outside of the country, but potentially still constrained by the high international tariff rates on outgoing calls.

Information Technology – Internet and PCs

Discussions with the two largest IPSs indicate rapid growth over the past couple years with current estimates on the number of Internet users at 100,000-200,000 and the number of PCs at 30,000-40,000.