YEREVAN, JUNE 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA State Commission on Protection of Economic Competition on June 18 discussed the applications of Internet service providers - Web, Arminco and Crossnet companies against ArmenTel company. According to these applications, having a monopoly position in the market of services on the rental of connection to the public telephone network, ArmenTel provides, through this network, "Hi- Line" Internet access services with high speed and at a low price to users, but it refuses to provide such services to other licensed providers, not renting the public phone network (distribution network) to them. At the same time, the providers propose conducting a study of the market of external channels through fiber-optic communication. The providers claim that ArmenTel has a technical possibility to rent phone lines. In their opinion, these steps of ArmenTel are aimed at gaining a monopoly in the sector of Internet access services as well. To recap, a memorandum on implementation of measures had been signed between representatives of ArmenTel and 7 providers, which was to be implemented within 10 days. According to the providers, ArmenTel has not taken any steps on implementation of the memorandum provisions. At the sitting, the Commission has given ArmenTel 15 days to solve the indicated problem with providers, only after which the Commission will take the respective measures.

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