VivaCell-MTS General Manager presents the sector’s issues to Communication Minister

Armenian Minister of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies Vahan Martirosyan visited VivaCell-MTS on February 7.

The Ministry informed that VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian spoke about state payments for frequency, noting they became a significant burden as the profits declined.

VivaCell-MTS General Manager stressed that the company is the lowest frequency consuming operator at the moment, and OTT (over-the-top) service apps (Skype, Viber) noticeably reduced voice services volume.

According to Ralph Yirikian, those applications use the operators’ infrastructure without profiting them or the state. He predicted that the process will lead to extreme drop in profits soon and the operators will decrease investments.

In this regard the Minister stated the necessity of introduction of new technologies by the operators, which will allow providing new services.

Touching upon roaming tariffs, Vahan Martirosyan observed that during the meeting with Russian Minister of Communication he discussed the roaming tariffs for the EAEU.

VivaCell-MTS Legal Department Manager Armine Sargsyan said that in the first stage of negotiations the roaming tariffs were lowered to a certain point, but application of a common approach can lead to conflict of interest because of differences between the EAEU countries’ economies.

Vahan Martirosyan informed that discussions are underway regarding the possibility of mutual settlement with national currency for the EAEU countries.

The Minister suggested VivaCell-MTS to analyze the issue and prepare a point of view about its profitability.