Mediamax Agency, Armenia
March 23 2007
`Most likely, we will be providing mobile services in Armenia under
`Beeline’ brand’, Vice-President of `VimpelCom’ stated
Yerevan, March 22 /Mediamax/. The Vice-President of `VimpelCom’ OJSC
Sergey Avdeev stated in Tsakhkadzor today that `we will quickly
conclude the process of purchasing the 10% shares of the `ArmenTel’
Company from the Armenian government’.
Mediamax reports that today in Tsakhkadzor there took place the
conference of the Top-Managers of the `VimpelCom’ OJSC and the
General Directors of the Companies, which enter the `VimpelCom’
group: `ArmenTel’ (Armenia), `CaR-Tel’ (Kazakhstan), `Ukrainian
RadioSystems’ (Ukraine), `UNITEL’ (Uzbekistan), `TACOM’ (Tajikistan),
`MOBITEL’ (Georgia).
Sergey Avdeev reminded that the condition for selling the 10% share
of `ArmenTel’ was the renunciation of the new owner of the company
from monopoly rights.
`We renounced monopoly and hope to quite soon conclude the process of
purchasing the shares. We are glad that the Armenian government made
today the corresponding decision’, the Vice-President of `VimpelCom’
stated.
The `VimpelCom’ OJSC, which functions under the `Beeline’ brand,
purchased in November 2006 the 90% of the shares of `ArmenTel’ from
the Greek OTE for 341,9mln euro, and also took upon itself the 40mln
euros’ debts of the company.
Sergey Avdeev said that `sooner or later, we will start providing
mobile services in Armenia under the `Beeline’ brand’.
What concerns the fixed net; Sergey Avdeev and the CEO of `ArmenTel’
Oleg Bliznyuk consider it expedient to preserve the former brand.
`ArmenTel’ is not an ordinary company for us, as it provides both
fixed and mobile communication. We need some time to finally
understand how to put in order the work’, Sergey Avdeev stated.
According to the Vice-President of `VimpelCom’, `we know that
`ArmenTel’ does not have a very good image’. `We want to
de-monopolize the market, to establish a competitive environment, in
which the operators would hunt subscribers and not vice versa’, he
noted.
Answering Mediamax’s question, Sergey Avdeev confirmed that
`VimpelCom’ is examining the prospects of establishing in Armenia a
convergent product by means of combining the services of the mobile
and fixed nets.
`The idea is that being at home, you are talking by your ordinary
home telephone, and going out, using the same number on your mobile
phone’, the Vice-President of `VimpelCom’ stated.
At the same time, Sergey Avdeev admitted that `this is a future
service; it does not have a mass character yet’. `I even cannot name
large-scale convergent projects, which would be completed’, the
Vice-President of `VimpelCom’ stated.
`In `ArmenTel’ we have the possibility to try this service, as we
have an exceptionally felicitous combination of fixed and mobile
services in the hands of one operator. We are potentially close to
the point to realize the given service at least in a testing regime’,
Sergey Avdeev stated.
`It is very important for us to enlarge the set of products, which
would be realized in the fixed nets. In the nearest future for the
first time in Armenia the service of high-speed transfer of data
based on DSL technology will be implemented’, the Vice-President of
`VimpelCom’ OJSC stated.