ARMENTEL DECIDES TO CANCEL 65% OF SUBSCRIBERS’ DEBTS FOR INTERNATIONAL PHONE COMMUNICATION AS RESULT OF USING INTERNET

Noyan Tapan
May 24 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 24, NOYAN TAPAN. ArmenTel company decided to cancel 65%
of its subscribers’ debts for international calls registered during
the use of dial-up Internet services. General executive director
of ArmenTel Oleg Bliznyuk said at the May 24 press conference that
the devision applies to subscribers who filed an application to the
company regarding this issue from May 1, 2006 to May 23, 2007.

According to him, if the subscriber has already paid the debt, 65%
of the paid sum will be kept on his/her account as prepayment. Those
subscribers who have not yet made payments may pay the remaining 35%
of their debt gradually within three years after signing the respective
agreement with ArmenTel.

O. Bliznyuk said that 57% of nearly 250 subscribers’ debts of the
total amount of 67 mln drams (about 180 thousand dollars) has already
been paid. He noted that in May 2006, the company cancelled the whole
sum of similar debts that subscribers had accumulated in the previous
8 months.

In the words of ArmenTel’s general executive director, international
phone connections are often made against the will of Internet users,
as a result of which large debts are accumualted for international
phone calls. To avoid this, subscribers are recommended to block the
international phone access by using the free coding method.