KEY EVENTS HAPPENED IN 2020

COVID-19 AND ITS IMPACT ON TELECOM INDUSTRY

2020 KEY EVENTS

The telecommunications industry as well as the digital services sector are subject to rapid and significant changes in technology and are characterized by the continuous introduction of new products and services. The mobile telecommunications and digital services industries in Armenia are also experiencing significant technological change, as evidenced by the constant technological evolution of standards for radio telecommunications. Old approaches for products and services are no more commercially effective and we are continually changing our products or services in response to market demand that requires the adoption of new technologies and emerging industry standards with our existing technology.

In 2020, Viva-MTS faced increasing competition in the market, including potential M&A of competitors, as well as the global COVID-19 pandemic that has affected the entire society.

We were the first in the market with offers that aimed to support online education, helping the National Polytechnic University of Armenia to launch the first Armenian online university educational platform “iUniversity” on March 23, 2020.

When the entire education stated to go online, and major companies started working remotely, Viva-MTS presented “+Meeting” service for “X”, “Y” and “Z” tariff plans subscribers to use applications such as “Zoom” and “Skype” without embedded internet package consumption. KEY EVENTS HAPPENED IN 2020 mts.am Key Events happened in 2020 | 22

Viva-MTS led by example and starting from October 2020 presented 0 AMD/minute tariff for its subscribers in Artsakh for calls to Viva-MTS, as well as to Artsakh mobile and fixed networks and all roaming services.

In 2020, with the increasing demand for data, Viva-MTS launched a major network upgrade project in Armenia, which resulted in a significant increase of 4G services coverage, as well as network capacity. It includes a reframing of 900 MHz frequency band to UMTS and 1800 MHz band to LTE with the implementation of Carrier Aggregation technology. New Core network nodes were put in operation in 2020, marking the completion of a bigger CS and PS Core modernization project. At the end of 2020, MTS Armenia network has 1,700 2G BTS in total, 2,517 3G base stations, and 1,805 4G sites.