ARMENTEL COMPANY TO ABANDON MONOPOLY ON IP-TELEPHONY UNTIL END OF 2007

Arka News Agency, Armenia
May 25 2007

YEREVAN. May 24. /ARKA/. Until the end of 2007, ArmenTel Company
intends to abandon monopoly on IP-telephony in Armenia, ArmenTel
Director General Oleg Bliznyuk reported at a press conference on
Thursday.

According to him, the company abandons its monopoly and leaves the
issue for consideration of the Commission for Regulation of Public
Services that is to regulate licensing.

"At the moment, ArmenTel is the monopolist de jure only in this
segment, as most of providers used our network and frequently took
not very high quality channels," Bliznyuk said.

According to him, once the monopoly is removed, the situation with
competition will be transparent. Only those companies that can provide
quality services will manage to work in this sector.

In his turn, CRPS member Samvel Arabajyan pointed out that due to
ArmenTel’s abandoning the monopoly, the commission works on market
design, concretization and simplification of licensing regulation,
as well as studies the international experience in organizing
telecommunications market.

"It is a relatively new market to Armenia. That is why we have
to implement extensive work. However, it is obvious now that the
market will work, and many new interested parties will represent it,"
Arabajyan said.