On the telephone

The representatives of the Armenian government and Armentel have been meeting in London since August 9th, reports Haykakan Zhamanak (Via Groong).

At issue is Armentel's monopoly on Armenian telecommunications, now voided by the Armenian government.

In relations with ArmenTel, the second important task is bringing the company back under control. That is, it is necessary for the company to take no action without the government's agreement, especially in tariff policy. Our sources characterize the government's goal in the following way: ArmenTel must obey. All the remaining issues, such as the digitization of stations, upgrading of Internet communication and others can be considered secondary. For example, there is no doubt that if ArmenTel does not increase the tariff per minute of fixed communication, the government, in its turn, can forget about an improvement in the quality of communications for some time. In the given case the introduction of a tariff of eight drams per minute is in question. It is a highly explosive issue for the Armenian government. However, there is no doubt that in this issue the government can only gain time at best. That is, in the course of the negotiations, the government will have to come to an agreement on tariffs, which means that subscribers will be informed in the near future when these tariffs, a cause of general horror, will be applied.

Granting a monopoly was a big mistake in the first place. If you've paid a lot of money for a national monopoly for a fixed period (10 years) then there is no incentive to invest heavily as Armentel was supposed to do. Rather, you sit back and hope to make as much money in the period of the contract as possible.

Read the full article.

Posted by Matt on August 19, 2004 | TrackBack | Email to a friend