Armenian govt puts off changing ArmenTel’s license to Oct 28

Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
October 7, 2004

Russian Government; Telecoms/Internet

Armenian govt puts off changing ArmenTel’s license to Oct 28

YEREVAN, Oct 7 (Prime-Tass) – The Armenian government postponed the
introduction of amendments to the license of Armenian national
telecommunications company ArmenTel aimed at partially depriving the
company of its monopoly position to October 28 from October 12, the
governmental press service reported Thursday.

On February 19, the government decided to introduce changes to
ArmenTel’s license due to the company’s violation of a number of its
terms.

The amendments to the license were expected to come into force from
June 30 but were postponed several times due to legal proceedings
related to the issue at the London Court of International
Arbitration.

The London Court of International Arbitration is currently hearing
two suits, the Armenian government vs the Greek company Hellenic
Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE) and ArmenTel vs the
Armenian government.

In 1997 OTE paid U.S. USD 142.470 million to gain control of the 90%
stake in ArmenTel that was formerly held both by the Armenian
government (41% stake) and Trans-World Telecom (49%).

ArmenTel was granted the right to a monopoly for 15 years, according
to the agreement.

On September 8, 2003, the government decided to deprive ArmenTel of
its monopoly license, but the decision has not yet been enforced due
to the ongoing lawsuits against the company. End