ANOTHER MORAL VICTORY FOR GOVERNMENT AND ANOTHER DECEPTION FOR PEOPLE
James Hakobyan

Lragir, Armenia
Aug 27 2007

The campaign against Armentel’s monopoly was about to become an idee
fixe. The perception was gradually developing in the society that
Armentel is voodoo and if we solve this problem we will live happily
ever after. And now the problem of Armentel seems to be solving. The
Greeks sold the company to the Russians, and the Russians agreed to
give up the monopoly sooner if the Armenian government sold 10 percent
of its shares of Armentel. Now Vimpelcom, which bought 90 percent of
Armentel’s shares, now holds 100 percent of shares.

Instead, Armentel gives up monopoly from October 1, 2007. The chair
of the Public Services Regulatory Commission Robert Nazaryan even
congratulated the Armenian people on the imminent "death" of the
monopoly of Armentel. However, before people would "receive" and
perceive Robert Nazaryan’s congratulation, the CEO of Armentel Oleg
Bliznyuk made everything as clear as a howl. He advised people not to
expect that after October 1 life would become happy right away. He
made the society think. They wonder who they should believe, Robert
Nazaryan who congratulated them or Oleg Bliznyuk who advised them
not to look at the reality through pink glasses for the shortsighted.

Perhaps the right thing is to trust in God who gave people common
sense, the ability to think and find out the reality on their own
and not from others’ words. Consequently, it is worthwhile for the
society to forget that there is Robert Nazaryan and Robert Bliznyuk
in the world and try to judge what may change if Armentel loses the
monopoly. For instance, when Armentel stopped holding monopoly, major
changes took place in the sphere of cellular telephony. When the second
operator came, competition occurred thanks to which a cell phone became
less a luxury in Armenia and more a means of communication. More and
more Armenians became reachable. However, is cellular communication
a model for the other spheres, namely the fixed line telephony which
is a means of communication for the poor class?

Perhaps not. Fixed-lined telephony is not attractive for investments.

It is not cost-effective therefore it is necessary to raise the
tariffs to justify the costs in a reasonable period of time. Both
the Greek and Russian owners of Armentel tried to do that. However,
the Armenian government always prevented them. At that time
the government could because when the fixed-lined telephony
was a monopoly, and the government held 10 percent of shares,
the Armenian government affirmed the tariffs. Soon Armentel will
not be a monopoly any more and as Bliznyuk said, from October 1
Armentel becomes a fully commercial organization and will measure
investments by cost-effectiveness. In other words, he hinted that
the Armenian government cannot interfere with the price policy of
Armentel, and even if it tries to interfere, Armentel will make no
investments in that sphere because it will be unable to set tariffs
which justify costs. It means either Armentel will set any tariff or
will not continue to make investments to modernize the network if the
network is not going to be cost-effective. In other words, either the
fixed-line telephone bills top, which the government has been going
out of its way to prevent to avoid social protests or the hope for
the improvement of the fixed-line network is delayed till the future.

This is what Bliznyuk meant when he advised not to expect that
everything will be fine after October 1.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress