Ralph Yirikian: 2016 won’t be easy for mobile operators

General Manager of VivaCell-MTS Ralph Yirikian thinks that “competitiveness is extreme” in Armenian market.

“It was an interesting year for VivaCell-MTS, full of challenges. We continue to develop our network: the creation of 80 additional stations is one of the positive additions. Unfortunately, our industry experiences decline in economic sphere - by about 8% compared to last year. Reasons are various -both global, internal. The economic situation in Russia is absolutely one of the reasons. The Russian telecom operators have increased tariffs for calls to Armenia and this has led to the fact that some subscribers had opted for Internet communication, consequently voice calls reduced. And it affected us negatively in terms of profits”, said the General Manager of the company in an interview with Golos Armenia newspaper.

“Sometimes the operators offer opportunities to their subscribers which they will to be able to use. For example, offering 300-400 minutes free calls is reasonable. But if the offer is 1000 mins free calls, it doesn’t make any sense. And this is another factor that makes the profit decrease. We can talk about various other reasons but the fact is that understanding the reality, we have to work harder, more effective to gain better results. I think that it won’t be easy in 2016 as well, possibly even more difficult. There is a lot of work to do”, said Ralph Yirikian.