NEW TARIFFS WERE NECESSITATED BY EXCHANGE RATE OF DOLLAR
Srbuhi Vanian

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh
Nov 30 2006

The NKR Ministry of Territorial Government and Development of
Infrastructures confirmed and enforced the new tariffs on fixed-line
and mobile telephone and the Internet. Karabakh Telecom has already
changed the tariffs for several times, and the consumers want to
know how these changes will affect their budget. The deputy minister
of territorial government and development of infrastructures Arnold
Abrahamian said the change of tariffs is due to the exchange rate of
the dollar. Formerly, the tariffs were set in dollars, and the bills
were paid in drams. It depended on the depreciation or revaluation of
the dram whether the provider or consumer benefited. The fixed-line
telephone tariffs did not change for they were set in drams. Arnold
Abrahamian said the change of the tariffs on mobile telephone and the
Internet complies with the law. "We act according to the provision
of the law, making payments in drams. We replaced the dollar prices
with dram prices because the law provides for payments in drams. By
the way, the present tariffs are lower than the former tariffs if
we calculated them in drams," said the deputy minister. As another
explanation of the changes, Arnold Abrahamian said the prices were
made to correspond to the tariffs of the two operators in Armenia,
Vivacell and Armentel. According to the deputy minister, the new
tariffs on the Internet are favorable for the users, who will pay 20
percent less than they used to. We asked Arnold Abrahamian about the
digitalization of the fixed-line telephone. He said the fixed-line
telephone is in a bad state, and minor repairs are not effective. The
digitalization is expected to start in spring.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress