World Bank critical of Armenia’s choice of second mobile operator

Arminfo
8 Jul 05

YEREVAN

The World Bank considers imperfect the way taken by the Armenian
authorities to demonopolize the sphere of the mobile communications in
the country, the head of the World Bank’s representative office in
Yerevan, Roger Robinson, told a press conference in Yerevan today.

He said that the tender for a second mobile operator, in which
K-Telecom [Karabakh telecom] company was the winner, was not
transparent.

“We had lengthy discussions on this matter with the Armenian
government, who said that there were strategic aims behind selecting
K-Telecom,” Robinson said.

He said that ArmenTel company had also taken part in the negotiations
where it consented to reduce the term of licence to mobile
communications by five year and allowed the second operator’s access
to the market although it could have rejected the government’s offer
legally.

Nevertheless, Armenia has always lagged behind the [other] South
Caucasus countries for the level of the development of
telecommunications. He pointed out that due to high tariff rates and
poor quality of communications, Armenia yields to Georgia very
much. [Passage omitted: ArmenTel’s sole status in the Armenian market
changed in 2004]