Armenian Economy Minister: legislative restriction of ArmenTel’s powers
not best way to settle conflict with Internet providers

2008-05-04 14:38:00

ArmInfo. Legislative restriction of ArmenTel’s powers is not the best
way to settle the conflict with Internet providers, Economy Minister
Nerses Yeritsyan said at an IT-Forum in the resort town of Tsakhkadzor
on 3 May.

He said that any restriction will lead to a relevant response by the
company and it is necessary
evaluate ‘whether we will win or lose’. He is sure that providers do
not think ‘globally’ when expressing their dissatisfaction with
ArmenTel. He assured those present that the government aims to form an
IT-society, which requires revealing and settling the key problem. It
is necessary to carefully analyze the demand and supply in the market
before making any specific decisions, the minister said. ‘Maybe it
would be reasonable for the providers to combine efforts to create an
alternative telecommunication network’, the minister said. The
government will not attract investments in creation of an alternative
network for it is the business of private companies. ‘It is already the
third or the fourth discussion in this format and no consensus has been
found so far. Unfortunately, we failed to interest either ArmenTel or
VivaCell and I think that such meetings should be continued>, N.
Yeristyan said.

The event organizers were the Union of IT Enterprises, Ministry of
Economy, and Competitive Armenian Private Sector Project (CAPS) funded
by USAID.