ACCORDING TO ARMENTEL’S DIRECTOR, CHANGE OF TARIFFS IS INEVITABLE FOR LIBERALIZATION OF TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION MARKET

Noyan Tapan
Jul 16 2007

YEREVAN, JULY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The tariffs of services provided by
ArmenTel by the exclusive right will be rebalanced and the telephone
communication market will be liberalized by October. Robert Nazarian,
the Chairman of the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission, stated
this on July 13.

However, according to Oleg Bliznyuk, ArmenTel’s Director General, no
such agreement has been reached officially yet. He said that changes
of tariffs is inevitable for market liberalization, and unless the
sides come to an agreement on tariffs, ArmenTel will not renounce
the monopoly in the term announced in advance.

O. Bliznyuk said that ArmenTel plans to use different tariffs for
three categories of subscribers, budget organizations physical and
juridical persons.

The ArmenTel Director said that by the end of the year the company
is going to install fixed and mobile telephone communication new
equipment of last generation. The company is also promising to continue
digitalization of Yerevan’s fixed telephone network. In O. Bliznyuk’s
words, in the coming six months Yerevan’s 400 analogous stations will
be turned into digital ones. He said that laying of new telephone
lines is a more complicated issue, which is also being done.

In response to the question of journalists, Bliznyuk said that
ArmeTel’s brand is a national value and its change into BiLine is
not appropriate.