Baku, Fineko/abc.az. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD or the Bank) requires a consultant produce a Market Study into Telecoms Coverage to Remote and Rural Areas of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.

The Bank says that deadline for acceptance of EOIs is 8 February 2010. The contract with the chosen consultant will last about three months. Maximum budget for the assignment is 150,000 euro without VAT.

The Bank justifies the project with the fact that although mobile phone usage and network coverage has expanded rapidly in the EBRD region over the past decade, much less progress has been made in rural and remote areas in countries such as Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. As a result, communities in such areas are less likely to be able to enjoy the social and economic benefits of having access to affordable and reliable mobile phone connectivity and internet telecommunications. These communities will have little or no access to e-Health / education, Government services or e-commerce retail or trading platforms. The rate limiting step is the availability of the national electric grid and robustness of the power supply. To provide a robust mobile or Wimax (wireless internet access) service to consumers with the minimum of down time operators have to resort to diesel generators to provide power to the base station when the mains electricity spikes, surges or drops out all together. The cost of diesel, transporting it to remote base stations in rural remote areas, the cost of the two generators required and the high risk of theft of the raw material or the generators makes the expansion of the network to these regions commercially unjustifiable.

The EBRD now requires a consultant (the Consultant) produce a Market Study into Telecoms Coverage to Remote and Rural Areas (the study). By undertaking the study the Consultant will:

1. Improve EBRD’s understanding of the technology, climatic restrictions and operational limitations of deploying an appropriate solution in Azerbaijan, Armenia & Georgia.

2. Identify 40 locations in each country with a target mobile or wireless Internet operator that are suitable for a full engineering trial lasting six months following this initial due diligence phase which this Notification of Assignment covers

3. Complete a desktop research and in-country evaluation of the suitability of the mobile operators in each country to retrofit their existing network of base stations or build out planned new base stations with the appropriate energy saving technologies.

4. Conclude a transitional impact study to evaluate the impact on a rural or remote region following the deployment of a robust communications access point, enabling participating companies to achieve and retain better access to EU markets, and adding value to existing EBRD investments.

It is envisaged that the Consultant will carry out the following tasks: identify the mobile Wimax operator landscape and work with the EBRD to identify a suitable host operator to provide accurate in-country network design topology; identify 40 suitable locations (20 off grid and 20 on partial grid) that have a sufficient population catchment area, and map the micro climatic conditions suitable for wind and solar; analyse the existing technical specifications, capital expenditure, operational expenditure and maintenance / transportation of power logistics of a standard point of presence as deployed on the chosen operator network; analyse the power draw and match that against the possible wind and solar (scavenger energy); evaluate power production possibilities for a 12 month period; match power energy saving techniques against scavenger energy possible production; explore the trading back possibilities to the grid or local community of excess power; cost the exercise of creating a trial of 20 points of presence and produce a financial model to understand the increase in capital and operational expenditure and demonstrate pay back period over traditional power/technology solutions.

28.01.2010 16:57