Yerevan, May 14 (Noyan Tapan). In the recently elaborated "South Caucasus Telecommunication Development and Integration Program", Georgia was presented as the center for cooperation development in the telecommunication sphere in the Caucasian region. This is because Georgia is considerably ahead of its neighbors as far as the information-communication sphere's development and democratization is concerned. The conclusion of the program implemented with the funds of the Eurasia grant in 2003 points out the importance of Georgia's experience in the last ten years, as well as it calls for supporting its further development by all means in order to pave the way for similar reforms in neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia. (see: http://telecom.synergy.am).
As regards Armenia, this sphere is less developed here than in Georgia and Azerbaijan. For example, the volume of communication services in Azerbaijan was $192.2 million in 2002, there are over 650,000 mobile phone users their and this service covers 80% of the country's territory. Two percent of people have permanent Internet access, the number of specialists involved in the sphere of information and communication exceeds 10,000. In contrast, the volume of communication services totaled $77 million in Armenia.
ArmenTel, a monopolist on Armenia's telecom market, provides low-quality services at higher prices. The total number of mobile phone users does not exceed 50,000 and covers only 20% of the whole territory of the country. 1.5% of the population has Internet access, and the number of specialists involved in the sphere of information and communication is nearly 2,000. As Director of the ArmComputer Center Vahram Mkhitarian said, these upsetting but real showings describing Armenia are the result of misuse of powers by government bodies, absence of government control over the sphere, obstruction of the sphere's development by ArmenTel and its failure to fulfill its obligations established by license 60. For example, ArmenTel was obliged to lay a 20,000-kilometer-long optic fiber and install digital telephone stations in 800 villages before this year. In reality there is only a 1,000-kilometer-long optic fiber in Armenia and there are no digital telephone stations in any village.
To end this situation, the ArmComputer Center has submitted
the bill on "2003-2012 Strategy for Armenian Telecommunication Network
Development" to the Council for Support to Information Industrial Development
attached to the Armenian government. The bill has been included in the programs
for the sphere's development. According to Mkhitarian, if the government carries
out the measures laid down in the program, the efforts of the next 3-4 years
will enable Armenia to win back the lost positions and become the leader of
the information and communication sphere of the Southern Caucasus.