Once again, Armenia has been cut off from the information superhighway because of the damn ArmenTel monopoly. The connection went out on Friday at about mid-day and was restored early evening, but went down again in the early hours of Saturday morning. Although those few companies and international organizations with satellite connections were fortunate enough to have internet access, the rest of us — including Armenia’s ISPs — were not.

The Arka News Agency has more on Friday’s problems here, and I hope the rest of the media will cover this weekend’s lack of internet in the coming days. The situation is stupid, to say the least, and the government must act now.

ARMENIA CUT OF INTERNET ACCESS

YEREVAN, August 4. /ARKA/. Armenia was cut of Internet access on Friday. Arminco Global Telecommunications, the biggest Armenian internet provider, said at its internet site that the line broke because optic-fiber cable was hurt in Georgia at 11:55 local time between Kutaisi and Zestafoni. This caused technical problems at OTEGLOBE VOIP E3, UKRTEL E3, TELEGLOBE, as the report says.

Armenia Telephone Company enjoys the sole right to supply internet access to Armenian internet providers. Since 1997, 90% of ArmenTel’s shares belong to Greek OTE Company while the remaining 10% belong to Armenian government. M.V.-0—

Enough is enough. It’s time to end the Armentel monopoly and the fact that we have only one line coming into Armenia via Georgia. Until then, this is not the first time that Armenia has been cut off from the Internet, and I daresay it will not be the last. The last time this happened was at the end of June.

Armentel’s Fiber Optic cable damage

Please be informed that on 29 June, 2006 at 18:49 ArmenTel Helpdesk registered damage of Fiber-Optic cable in the territory of Georgia. The connection was restored on 30 June, 2006 at 03:39.

Because of this exclusive right to provide access to ISPs in Armenia, not only is the situation precarious to say the least, but costs are ridiculously high. DSL access in Tbilisi, capital of the neighboring Republic of Georgia, for example, costs just $30-35 per month – less than the cost of a mediocre dialup connection in Yerevan. That’s probably why there are more internet cafes in Yerevan than Tbilisi, and I daresay most cities in the developed world.

Now, at 2.25pm in Yerevan, we finally have internet again albeit worse than usual. It’s so damn slow. Anyway, the situation is getting ridiculous, as the Regnum News Agency explains. I’m still astounded that this situation even exists at all.

Armenia is cut off Internet again: cable breakages in Georgia become permanent

For the last 48 hours, the population of Armenia has twice been cut off the internet, REGNUM correspondent reported from Yerevan on the telephone. On August 4 and 5, the reason of the breakdowns in the work of Armenian internet providers became cable failures on the territory of Georgia.

According to the national ArmenTel Company information holding exclusive rights on maintaining international telecommunications in Armenia, the current situation is caused by cable failure in the Kutaisi region, which resulted in the absence of internet connection

Well, I’d go so far as to say that as this is also a matter of communication with the outside world, it’s also now one of national security. In fact, I said this in a public argument with the then editor of Armenian International Magazine on the letters page of Groong in the summer of 1998. Of course, the publicists for the Armenian Government couldn’t think logically and see what was bound to happen eventually.

Nobody in their right mind grants a monopoly in the area of communications to a foreign company, although the rumors of money going missing and allegations of high-level corruption during the deal says a lot in itself. It really is time for things to be put right. Actually, I’d say that it’s way past time.