Armenian regulator reduced the price for wholesale Internet of the company ArmenTel

YEREVAN, October 12. /ARKA/. Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) of Armenia on Wednesday defined new prices for wholesale Internet for telecommunication company ArmenTel, said member of Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) of Armenia Samvel Arabajyan in the international press-center “Novosti”.

He said that according to the Commission’s decision, the price of 1 Mbit/sec of wholesale Internet of the company ArmenTel will be 35.6 thousand drams, noting that according to the data as of January 1, 2010 maximum tariff was 174 thousand drams.

In 2006 the price of 1 Mbit/sec of wholesale Internet in Armenia was 5.46 million drams, in 2007 – about 3 million drams, in 2008 – about 1.2 million drams, in 2009 – 330 thousand drams, in 2010 – 174 thousand drams and at the end of 2010 – beginning of 2011 – average tariff was 66 thousand drams.

“Such a decrease is conditioned by abrupt increase of the number of users and international IP traffic which in digital terms is as follows: if in January it was 10 Gbit/sec., this indicator increased by 7 Gbit in half a year making 17 Gbit/sec., and till the end of the year, keeping the same dynamics it can reach 22 Gbit/sec.”, said Arabajyan.

As for the number of users, only in the first six months the number of users of broadband Internet in Armenia increased by 100 thousand - from 230 thousand according to the data at the beginning of the year to more than 340 thousand by the results of half a year.

“It is a good indicator of a semi-cut, which, I think, in the past two months has increased”, said Arabajyan.

According to PSRC decision, the company ArmenTel (brand Beeline) is recognized an operator occupying dominant position in the transit market of international IP services in Armenia covering 67% of the market. PSRC also defined a single tariff for ArmenTel for the provision of IP communication to other operators which was 35.6 thousand drams per 1 Mbit/sec. But the company disagree with the decision of the company on the issues of having dominant position in the market and definition of tariffs.

“ArmenTel” is a subsidiary of VimpelCom (trade mark Beeline), since April 2007, 100% of “ArmenTel” owned Russian company. “ArmenTel” provides fixed and mobile communication services, as well as high-speed Internet access.  ($1 – 376.23 drams). -0-

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01:18 10/13/2011