The state customs committee has given information about the number of illegal imports of mobile phones to Armenia in 2004, 2005 and during the first four months of 2006 to a news agency. But this list is more like showing how much shadow there is in this field. Thus, according to this official information, in 2004 the number of imported mobile phones was 272, in 2005 – 8439, and during the first four months of 2006 – 2467. On the basis of this information we may assume that the number of mobile phones in Armenia has increased by only 11,178 in the last trimester. This is very surprising. This is when there was a rapid development in this field. The World Bank has implemented a research program in the communications field, where they state that the number of ArmenTel subscribers covers 205.000. As of 2004 another operator entered the field (K-Telecom) too. Based on the information given by the economical competition protection committee, as of March 10, 2006, K-Telecom covers 52,7% of the whole mobile phone market and mobile services of Armenia, i.e. it covers more than Armentel. On the basis of this information we may assume that in 2005 alone, the number of mobile phone users in Armenia increased by several hundred thousand. As for the mentioned 11,780 mobile phones, they said that the customs service had either joked or cheated on those fighting against corruption. Three days ago, Robert Kocharyan ordered to fire the prosecutor of Yerevan Malatsya-Sebastya community, Hamlet Hovsepyan, and the reason was the fact that his son had imported more mobile phones to Armenia than he was allowed to. According to our sources of information, some customs officers have also been punished for this violation.
