Armentel sold...
Well, the Russians have bought another very important Armenian asset - Armentel. The company owns all of Armenia's land lines, one of only 2 mobile phone providers, the monopoly on the internet and external telephony. I have nothing against the Russians, but the amount of stuff owned by one foreign power seems out of control... especially when they have a reputation now for using their assets as a foreign policy tool.
There were rumors that when Armentel is sold, the internet monopoly would be removed from the company - now I wait to see if it is true or not. I definitely won't believe it till I see it! It will be interesting in general though to see what happens to prices of the internet, which are so incredibly high here - and with unreliable service on top of that, now that it has been sold by the utterly incompetent Greek operator. The Armenian Government talks a great deal about the importance of Information Technology in Armenia... now let's see if it's just lip service.
There were rumors that when Armentel is sold, the internet monopoly would be removed from the company - now I wait to see if it is true or not. I definitely won't believe it till I see it! It will be interesting in general though to see what happens to prices of the internet, which are so incredibly high here - and with unreliable service on top of that, now that it has been sold by the utterly incompetent Greek operator. The Armenian Government talks a great deal about the importance of Information Technology in Armenia... now let's see if it's just lip service.
posted by Raffi K. at 7:14 AM
6 Comments:
hi raffi -
i am new to this blog (2 wks or so) and i am enjoying it very much. great to know such a blog like this exists. you write that ArmenTel is owned by a greek, i would assume it to be owned by an Armenian....No ?
do you know anything about satelite internet in Armenia? I have seen international companies offer it for Armenia. Is it used? Is it slow?
Yes, ArmenTel is 90% owned by OTE, a Greek company...
I know satellite is being offered, but there's some weird download only issue... I hear it's being worked on. If they fix it I'll switch...
I know a Norwegian company is in the process of setting up broadband in Armenia, to begin operation next year. I'm not sure how it works exactly, if it'll be within ArmenTel, or separate from it.
Satellite for internet access is intrinsically weird I think, because the distance to the satellite and back is enough to introduce a time delay. For 1-way traffic, like watching a movie, fine no matter. You're seeing it a second "late" compared to when it was transmitted but you're oblivious and indifferent because it runs at the right speed, starts at the beginning, ends at the end, and you can eat popcorn in your own home. If it's interactive though, you know when you send something so are directly aware of the lengthy interval before you ever see a response. "OMG I can't believe how slow that was!" I've only seen one installation of an internet satellite connection. They streamed financial data to LA from London. But their office was starting to use interactive internet as well for the first time. I was there to help set up replacement DSL. The ArmenTel download issue could be something different again.
WOW, i'm surprised that it would be owned by a foreign company/country. i'm actually surprised it's not owned by CS MEDIA or Cafesjian having his hand in it some how via some way, due to the fact he owns & has invested so much in the media/communication industry in our Hayastan. still...i wish everything that has to do with our Hayastan can be owned/operated by us (our own people)
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