A1 Plus | 19:50:07 | 04-11-2004 | Economy |
WHAT IS K-TELECOM?
“Under the decision on allowing the license for rendering services of
mobile communication in Armenia, Executive Power approved the results of
the tender represented by the tender commission set up by Government
decision and recognized “K-TeleCom” CJSC as the winner of the tender.
Some instructions were set to Transport and Communication and Justice
Ministers”. It’s the extract from the release of Government sitting.
We asked both Government, Justice Ministry and Transport and
Communication Ministry what the information meant. Ara Saghatelyan,
Press Secretary of Justice Ministry didn’t answer our questions. “Ask
the one conducting the tender”, he said.
It turns the specially established commission held the tender.
Communication and Transport Minister Andranik Manukyan heads the
committee. “Phone the information service!”, Minister answered when we
tried to ask him about the information.
Nether the local nor the cell phones of the information service
answered. We managed to obtain some information from Mary Harutyunyan,
head of Government Department of Public Relations.
It turns it was decided at Government special sitting last evening to
conduct a tender for rendering mobile communication services. It was
decided yesterday that Andranik Manukyan will head the tender
commission. These mean depriving “ArmenTel” of the monopoly for
so-called “SIM” card service, the second operator will function in the
sphere. But another thing is noteworthy.
Under the Law on “Licensing”, there is a special procedure set for
conducting a tender, which takes a long time. During that time the
tender participants introduce their applications and tender packages,
and then each package is studied separately. Let’s remind that months
ago when journalists wondered when the second operator would function in
the sphere of doing mobile communication services, officials always
answered that a tender would be held after settling the problematic
issues with “ArmenTel”.
Officials keep affirming for the time being no company wished to enter
the Armenian market.
Was everything carried out by Law? How it happened that a decision on
conducting a tender was made yesterday and the tender was held the next
day by 11:00 AM? Why weren’t the journalists informed about the decision
made at the special sitting of Government during the press conference?
Why was everything performed in secret? Why don’t any of officials want
to answer the questions?
All these cause thoughts. At last, what does “K-TeleCom” mean? Is that
“Karabakh-TeleCom”? We didn’t find this, either.