Friday, May 30 2014

 ArmenTel and Rostelecom telecommunication companies in Armenia have agreed to cooperate after the regulator interfered into their dispute.

On 30 May, the State Committee for Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC) studied Rostelecom's complaint against ArmenTel. 

Senior specialist at the Department for Market Analysis and Assessment at the SCPEC Anna Petrosyan said that Rostelecom requested communications to lay its fiber-optic cables on lease. However, ArmenTel submitted a contract to Rostelecom, wherein it demanded additional 1.7 mln drams annual payments for additional services. The Committee considered ArmenTel's actions unlawful, declaring that the company takes advantage of its monopoly possession of the communications and forces additional services to Rostelecom.

Speaking at the meeting of the Committee, Hayk Faramazyan, Director General of GNC-ALFA (subsidiary of Rostelecom), said after the administrative proceedings were launched, ArmenTel made a leasing contract without any additional services and the problem has been settled. In fact, Faramazyan removed his complaint and asked the Committee to stop the administrative proceedings.

To recall, in mid-May, another regulator, the Public Services Regulatory Committee of Armenia, fined ArmenTel for $2.4 thousand for untimely leasing a pipe duct for Rostelecom's telephone network.