New cellco drives sector growth

The Ministry of Economy in the unrecognised breakaway republic of Abkhazia has said that it expects a 70% increase in turnover in the electronic communications market next year to reach an estimated RUB514 million (USD20 million). The boom in sales has been prompted by the launch of a new mobile operator, A-Mobile, in November 2006. The other cellco in the region is Aquafon GSM, which began operations in March 2003 and had an estimated 50,000 subscribers by the end of March 2007.