“ArmenTel” is the biggest transaction that “VimpelCom” has made outside of Russia. “VimpelCom” provides cellular phone services not only to Russia, but also Kazakhstan. The company has recently acquired operators in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Armenia.
“VimpelCom” realizes that by purchasing “ArmenTel” it has taken hold of a large company, which is a very important step for developing proprietorship in the CIS countries. The fixed telephone communication field is a new field for “VimpelCom”, but the Russian company is not planning on giving that up and promises to provide high-quality connection and services. According to new director of “ArmenTel” Oleg Blizniuk, 600,000 subscribers for the fixed telephone connection is not enough for a country like Armenia.
“We plan on activating the digital telecommunication in Yerevan and the regions because we consider the current level low-it’s only at 50%,” said Mr. Blizniuk during a press conference.
The company is also planning on increasing the number of cellular phone subscribers. Currenlty, ArmenTel has nearly 400,000 cell-phone subscribers, while the second operator of Armenia, “Viva Cell”, has 600,000. According to O. Blizniuk, they are not satisfied with 25-30% of the market. They are thinking about making huge reforms in the Armenian market, become the leader in telecommunications, the one that brings the clients, provide high-tech equipment. But the “VimpelCom” correspondents didn’t go further in detail as to how much money they are planning on investing in Armenia to reach their goals.
“Tens of millions,” said one company correspondent Vladimir Ryabko.
It’s still unknown as to how the prices for fixed and cell-phone connection will affect the subscribers. Armenians also don’t know whether there will be a change in the prices for services and minutes or not, especially since during the term of the former director, “ArmenTel” had applied to the Public Services Regulatory Commission with the proposal of raising prices. True, the commission rejected the offer, but said that it’s quite possible that the new directors of the company will offer their prices in the spring.
In general, the “VimpelCom” representatives didn’t want to announce any amounts, but they were talking a lot about possibilities and goals.
“VimpelCom” isn’t afraid of competition. We’re ready to reject the Internet connection monopoly,” said O. Blizniuk.
The new directors of “ArmenTel” have already heard some bad things about the former Greek owners, but they promise to keep their reputation high.
As for the 10% shareholding of “ArmenTel” belonging to the Armenian government, “VimpelCom” hasn’t purchased that yet and hasn’t even made a decision. But the company is interested in becoming a 100% shareholder. The representatives haven’t even decided about changing the brand name and the reason is the respect towards the “ArmenTel” brand and their carefulness of not hurting their business by changing the name.
The “VimpelCom” representatives are certain that in this case, reasoning will overcome all. After hearing the nice words and promises, it’s hard not to believe that “VimpelCom” is better, that the person standing next to us will not be unreachable, that there will be no attempt to register more minutes and make money off of people, and so on. But when I recall that “VimpelCom” is a Russian company and took control of “ArmenTel” based on special competition conditions, I start to forget about the belief. In any case, let’s not get ahead of ourselves or be pessimistic. Let’s wait and see just how the company owners fulfill their promises.