Smartphones flowed into the Armenian market 2 years ago and immediately became popular among the population. Only in 2010, Orange Armenia and VivaCell-MTS sold about 550 and 1000 smartphones respectively.

Armenian IT field registered 15% growth in 2010. The turnover in the field totaled $150mln against $129.9mln last year. The field employs 5 thousand specialists, with 197 companies operating. At that, government financing of the IT field totaled AMD 80mln (as in 2010), what is 60% less than in 2009, when AMD 200mln was assigned.

Armenian government will announce a tender for construction and distribution of broadband Internet network with capacity of 100Mbyte/s within a couple of months. A company will be chosen and we will try to solve all matters related to provision of services in this direction.

The week has been full of largely discussed events in technology and social media industries. Several major companies of the sphere including Apple, Google and Facebook have made breaking announcements.

Armenia's internet traffic is the biggest among the CIS countries, where VimpelCom offers its services. ArmenTel subscribers use 300 TBytes monthly, passing ahead of Kazakhstan. The network capacity of external channels has increased 137 times since Beeline entered the Armenian market. Two circles of fiber optic backbone were build throughout the country in 2010.

Communication sector proceeds grossed 152,4 bln in January–November 2010 in Armenia, exceeding 2009’s index by 0,3%. According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, proceeds from IT and communication (ITC) services totaled AMD 174 billion, growing by 1,1% compared with 2009 results. ITC share comprises 24,6% of the total volume of services rendered in Armenia.

Software piracy has decreased 6% in Armenia over the past 4 years, what resulted in additional $5 million to the national budget. According to Microsoft Armenia director Grigor Barseghyan, the number of people using authorized software is increasing year by year in Armenia.

VivaCell-MTS has secured the necessary radio spectrum frequencies needed to begin the construction of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in Yerevan and Armenia’s regions. The decision to grant VivaCell-MTS a license for LTE network services was passed during the November 10 meeting of the Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia. The LTE license stipulates that VivaCell-MTS would have to launch commercial operations by March 1, 2011. The license will be valid until November 4, 2019 and will cost AMD990 million. For the first time in CIS, LTE network was put into operation in Tashkent in the end of July 2010. A test launch of LTE mobile network technology in Armenia was scheduled for December 1, 2010.

I could have made money this way, and perhaps amused myself writing code. But I knew that at the end of my career, I would look back on years of building walls to divide people, and feel I had spent my life making the world a worse place. Richard Stallman.

Communication sector proceeds grossed 124.9bln in January–September 2010 in Armenia, exceeding last year’s index by 2.2 %. According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, proceeds from fixed telephony, mobile communication and Internet services totaled AMD 23.5mln, 77.3mln and 17.9mln respectively.