“Armentel” keeps coming up with new “surprises”. On September 7, “Armentel”, a monopolist in the field of Armenian telephone communication, ceased its contracts with over 100 Armenian telephone communications companies providing services using the Internet.
According to them, “Armentel” has cut off over 500 lines that provided cheap phone conversation services for making long-distance calls. Due to the decision made by “Armentel”, over 2.000-3.000 citizens lost their jobs.
The companies say that this is illegal. They say that “Armentel” does not have a right to cut off the lines without any reasons. According to the director of “Dashink” labor center, Artyom Khachatryan, all the companies have obtained a license at the ministry of economy and finances. “Armentel” tried to fight against those companies in 2004 too. The head of “Art Collection” ltd, Moushegh Militonyan says that in that period over 25 companies applied to the ministry of transport and communication and asked to take that issue into consideration and help them. In 2005, the ministry made a statement, according to which it was illegal on behalf of “Armentel” to make such a decision and it contradicted the terms of License 60. “Why do we pay taxes and other payments if we are working illegally? This is just something aimed towards affecting small and medium businesses, which “Armentel” cannot explain in any way”, says A. Khachatryan. The same day that the lines were cut off the representatives of those companies went to “Armentel” to ask for explanations, but the corresponding officials did not even accept them.
“Armentel” has ordered its regional offices to cut off the lines that were used for providing such services. When giving that order, the general director of “Armentel” referred to Article 45, Clause 3,5, RA law on electronic communication. According to the mentioned law, “Armentel” is entitled to limit or cease providing electronic communication services to a subscriber, “if the latter has connected such source utilities to the electronic communication network, which may not be corresponded or may interrupt the operation of the public electronic communication network or may limit the possibilities of other users to use public communication services” or “if the latter violates the terms of payments and the agreement on providing services”.
In regard to the abovementioned, A. Khachatryan told us that the technical performance of those companies fully corresponded with the necessary standards, which in the previous year served as a reason for the ministry of communications to consider the decision of “Armentel” as invalid. As for violating the terms of payments or agreements, A. Khachatryan says that it is not true since those companies worked in a duly manner and fulfilled all their responsibilities provided by their contracts.
According to the representatives of those companies, the reason that “Armentel” has made such a decision is the fact that it doesn’t have a strong monopoly as it used to and they still want to continue getting super-profits. In fact, they say that it is not by chance that “Armentel” has managed to make such a decision just when the OTE is going to sell its share of stocks. This decision may help them increase the price of that company. “We all remember how expensive Easy-Cards were sold 1-1,5 years ago, whereas now everyone can buy it for 1.500 dram. The same will happen to the “Voice Bridge” cards of “Armentel” very soon. As a matter of fact, those cards are no longer sold in stores and they’re hard to find. We are sure that “Armentel” is doing this with the purpose of limiting free competition in this field. Citizens will have to use the stable communication network to make international calls, which will be 5-10 times more expensive”, as stated in the statement of the companies.
They haven’t applied to the public services regulatory commission yet First of all, these companies want to have a reasonable written explanation from “Armentel”, which would explain the reasons. If the mentioned letter does not satisfy them, they will bring a case against the monopolist Armenian telephone communication network.
We asked “Armentel” to explain the situation, to which they answered, “Those companies and people that were involved in such activities have numerously been warned by both “Armentel” and the corresponding governmental bodies about the necessity of ceasing their illegal activities”. They also told us that their company suffered many financial losses thanks to the companies.