Excuse me Raffi N., but I think that comment you had made about Yerevan storeowners not having "jashag" was a little harsh. We North Americans have always had the freedom to see the world and to see everything out there. Think about the conditions Hayastantsis had been living in for over 70 years. The censorship and the restrictions.
What a difference I see in the overall look of the city this year. Many stores have their holiday decorations and trees up (of course artificial ones since real ones are banned from being cut down in Armenia, unless they are brought here from abroad) and are having sales. So much is improving and progressing really fast here. Sure we all complain about so many things here, but most of the time I think to myself ... "what a wonderful world". (Hey, this is perfect timing for me to purchase all my appliances and other goodies for my new place.)
On a more serious note I have to bring up the telecommunications situation in Armenia. I recently read a study on telephone and cellular phone expenses in Armenia compared to many neighbouring countries. What Armentel is doing to this country is really horrible. The regular monthly charge for a home telephone is about $2.10 Canadian (or about $1.60 US). This includes a few hours per month, and after that it's a few Drams per minute. Armentel also had another option, which allows you to pay a few dollars a month to get unlimited usage (perfect plan for unlimited internet subsribers).
Moving on to internet costs, unlimited dial-up, and I stress dial-up, is between about $52-65 Canadian ($40-50 US) a month. In Canada unlimited dial-up costs about a third of that.
Now the latest Armentel development is ... NO MORE UNLIMITED PHONE SERVICE and the additional per minute charges are going up. When countries such as Georgia are practically using cell phones for free, we Armenians have fallen into this mess. How is our IT industry (which is said to have so much potential) supposed to develop in these conditions?
AH! Ok, yallah, goodnight!
What a difference I see in the overall look of the city this year. Many stores have their holiday decorations and trees up (of course artificial ones since real ones are banned from being cut down in Armenia, unless they are brought here from abroad) and are having sales. So much is improving and progressing really fast here. Sure we all complain about so many things here, but most of the time I think to myself ... "what a wonderful world". (Hey, this is perfect timing for me to purchase all my appliances and other goodies for my new place.)
On a more serious note I have to bring up the telecommunications situation in Armenia. I recently read a study on telephone and cellular phone expenses in Armenia compared to many neighbouring countries. What Armentel is doing to this country is really horrible. The regular monthly charge for a home telephone is about $2.10 Canadian (or about $1.60 US). This includes a few hours per month, and after that it's a few Drams per minute. Armentel also had another option, which allows you to pay a few dollars a month to get unlimited usage (perfect plan for unlimited internet subsribers).
Moving on to internet costs, unlimited dial-up, and I stress dial-up, is between about $52-65 Canadian ($40-50 US) a month. In Canada unlimited dial-up costs about a third of that.
Now the latest Armentel development is ... NO MORE UNLIMITED PHONE SERVICE and the additional per minute charges are going up. When countries such as Georgia are practically using cell phones for free, we Armenians have fallen into this mess. How is our IT industry (which is said to have so much potential) supposed to develop in these conditions?
AH! Ok, yallah, goodnight!
posted by Der Hova at 1:01 AM
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