Compared to the CIS, the infrastructures of communication of Armenia were developing slowly in the conditions of monopoly of international access and fixed (telephone) communication.
This extremely limited sector has never seemed attractive for investors, which didn’t enable us to apply modern means of data transfer. The situation is the same even now because the monopoly of international access was just eliminated, in February of 2007, and the monopoly of fixed communication still exists, which in its turn creates certain obstacles in terms of providing good quality communication in the whole territory of Armenia. In any case, the market is liberated and a number of serious companies are preparing for serious competition in the internal market. However, before applying for providing certain services, the companies must go through certain procedures defined by the state body.
To our question “who and which company has what means and opportunities” answered technical director of “Arminco” Grigor Saghyan. In his opinion the network of Armentel includes the whole territory. Part of the network is the optical-cable system, which according to the official information of 1988 passes through 25 central regions of Armenia. All the other 23 regions of the republic join the optical-cable line via tone and analog lines. The capacity of the tone lines is 2 megabytes a second. However in the conditions of copper lines or radio infrastructures their capacities are debilitated. Therefore the renting of those lines becomes senseless. According to accepted norms, analog lines enable to receive 28 kilobytes per second information. But the speed of the cables of Armentel, installed in the 50s, has a capacity of 14,4 kilobytes per second. In 2006 Armentel invested in the CDN system, however here is a problem with the modem. The connection from Armenia’s marzes to Armentel’s wireless amounts to 20 kilobytes a second. The minute fee of this service is 20 AMD. During 24 work days with 8-hour work time the fee amounts to 700-1000 USD per subscriber. Briefly put, this service is not cost-effective. The second place of competition is occupied by Fibernet, which also has its own optical cable line, however, it doesn’t have its own infrastructures. Fibernet will either lease the infrastructures of Armentel or build its own.
The “Armenia’s telecommunication network” CJSC also covers the whole territory of Armenia. However this company doesn’t use its whole capacity of tone telecommunication. Besides that, this company needs a license and special devises for such service. In terms of satellite communication this company has a capacity of using about 10 satellites. The best option for Armenian providers is to use the satellite of the Norwegian Company “Telenor”. According to the opinion of the technical director of Arminco, the company has a cable, which has a 100-kilometer cable at 1 gigabyte a second. Another competitor ADC has started to build its optimal cable communication network. It has started to provide certain services. The WEB company hasn’t provided any official information about its activity. Cornet Company, which is currently considered the provider of banks, works with a wireless system. The capacity of the line is 10 megabytes per second. Ksalt company also provides wireless internet.
The subscribers have perhaps figured out which companies they must rely on, however, hard times are starting for local subscribers. The market will regulate the price of the Internet. There is still 6 months remaining for this process. Before that we will try to keep our readers informed about the further plans and success of the companies.