AZG Armenian Daily #112, 18/06/2005

Communication

NEW LAW ON ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION TO COME INTO FORCE ON JAN. 1, 2006

ArmenTel to Hold Monopoly

The Cooperation for Open Society NGO organized a press conference yesterday
to discuss the draft law on electronic communication. Justice minister, the
head of the Communication Administration within the Communication and
Transport Ministry and the chairman of Internews-Armenia jural service were
invited to deliver their reports.

Justice minister Davit Harutyunian spoke about the draft law elaborated in
2000 and adopted at the first reading. Noting that the law aimed at solving
problems with ArmenTel, justice minister said that the new draft will give
the power in the sphere to another supervisor.

Perhaps, the key point the minister mentioned was that they made an attempt
to settle the issue of communication network, which is historically under
the control of ArmenTel, i.e. the issue of other operators utilizing the
network infrastructure.

Speaking of the fees for the services, the minister said that they will be
“rational and fair”. Asked by daily Azg what he means by that, Davit
Harutyunian said that the rational fee is the one that circulates today for
such services. As to the “fairness”, the minister kept silent. Anyhow, the
justice minister noted that there should be rivalry in the sphere in order
to have law tariffs and to make it develop.

By Aghavni Harutyunian