DUSHANBE, January 22, Asia-Plus - A new, eleventh cellular operator will appear in Tajikistan soon, according to the Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA).

A source at a CRA said that the cellular operator DilFon is a joint venture of closed joint-stock company Dilshod-Lubnon (Dilshod-Lebanon) and an Arabic telecommunications company.

“DilFon will operate starting from this spring and it will provide cellular communication services in the GSM-1800 standard only,” the CRA source said, noting that the Arabic side will hold the control package of shares.   

 “Frequency resource of the GSM-1800 in Tajikistan will be exhausted as this company begins operating in the country,” the source said, adding that frequency resource of the GSM-900 standard was exhausted in Tajikistan in early 2006 already. 

At present five cellular operators in Tajikistan, including MLT, Babilon-M, Indigo-Tajikistan, Indigo-Somoncom and Beeline provide cellular communication services in the GSM-1800 standard.