PSRC APPROVED NEW RULES OF RENDERING AND USING TELEPHONE SERVICES

arminfo
2008-05-20 14:19:00

ArmInfo. Today, the Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia
approved new rules of rendering and using telephone services.

As the Commission Chairman Robert Nazaryan said, the new rules
qualitatively differ from the previous ones adopted 10 years ago. The
life requirements have changed since that then, the market has
been liberalized and "ArmenTel" CJSC is not a monopolist today any
more, he added. The Commission chairman did not comment on which
specific changes have been introduced in the new rules and what
are their advantages. PSRC charged "ArmenTel" CJSC to sign new
contracts with subscribers till July 1, 2009. According to the new
rules, the telephone accounts should be paid till the last day of
the following month. After switching-off the telephone because of
debts, the subscriber has a right to receive calls during 15 days
more. In line with the Law on electron communication, the debtors,
with switched-off telephones, are enabled to carry out free calls by
special numbers (01, 02 and 03). However, this is available only for
subscribers of digital ATS, while the subscribers of analogue ATS
are technically deprived of this opportunity.

Head of the Legal Department of "ArmenTel" CJSC David Saldukhchyan
tried to discharge the Company of the standard to install telephone
lines at the Company’s expense if the cable length does not exceed 50
m. However, the Commission chairman insisted on fixing 200 m in the
rules as it is required by the Russian regulations, "since we are
not worse". D. Saldukhchyan also tried to discharge the Company of
the liability to return the funds to subscribers from not completely
realized prepayment cards. He said that if a subscriber buys a card
for 10,000 drams and used only half of it, and then he demands to
return him the remaining 5,000 drams for any reasons, it may cause
certain technical and organizational difficulties for the Company.

Although, R. Nazaryan said that such difficulties are the Company’s
problem and one should proceed from the consumers’ interests, he
instructed to discuss the opportunity of applying this standard once
more. Meanwhile, representatives of public organizations expressed
protest against this decision of the Commission and said that the
new rules are not better and they are even worse than the previous
ones, and that PSRC did not accept the numerous proposals for their
improvement.