ARMENIAN PHONE FEES ‘HIGHER THAN IN U.S.’
By Ruben Meloyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Aug 30 2007

Armenians pay more for fixed-line phone services than residents of
not only neighboring countries but the United States, according to
new research presented in Yerevan on Thursday.

A study conducted by the Armenian Center for National and International
Studies (ACNIS) found that an Armenian phone subscriber pays an average
of $38.4 per month, compared with $23 paid by a typical phone user
in the U.S. The monthly phone bills in Georgia and Azerbaijan average
$25 and $19 respectively, according to it.

"Phone expenditures in Armenia make up an average 19.5 percent of
the average monthly wage," said Ashot Turajian, the main author of
the study. Americans, by contrast, spend less than one percent of
their monthly income on fixed-line phone calls, he said.

In Turajian’s words, the ratio is higher in Georgia, at 22 percent,
only because the official monthly wage there is considerably lower
than in Armenia. He put the same figure for Azerbaijan at 9 percent.

The ACNIS study noted that the ArmenTel national telecommunication
company’s fixed monthly fees covering six hours of domestic phone calls
and per-minute charges levied from subscribers exceeding that limit are
both higher than similar tariffs set by U.S. fixed-line operators. It
said that unlike ArmenTel, the latter do not differentiate between
individual and corporate phone users. Armenian legal entities have
to pay more for the service than private individuals.

The cost of the service would have been even higher if the Armenian
government and state regulators had agreed to all tariff increase
sought by ArmenTel’s current and previous owners. The Russian-owned
company’s most recent attempt to raise its fees was blocked by the
Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) this summer.

The ArmenTel management agreed this month to keep the tariffs unchanged
until next April but indicated that it expects the regulatory body
to allow it to raise them later in 2008.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress