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Government, OTE seek out of court settlement of their dispute

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  • Government, OTE seek out of court settlement of their dispute

    ArmenPress
    June 25 2004

    GOVERNMENT, OTE SEEK OUT OF COURT SETTLEMENT OF THEIR DISPUTE

    YEREVAN, JUNE 25, ARMENPRESS: Armenian justice minister David
    Harutunian is currently negotiating in London with representatives of
    the Hellenic Telecommunication Organization (OTE) in an effort to
    reach an out-of-court settlement of the bitter dispute between the
    government and OTE's subsidiary ArmenTel operator.
    The OTE subsidiary is accused by Armenian government of abusing
    the 15-year exclusive rights granted in 1998, failing to provide good
    quality communication and maintaining high cost of its services.
    These charges are denied by the Greek side, which says the government
    itself violated the 1998 takeover contract. Earlier this year the OTE
    and Armentel filed a lawsuit to the London-based International Court
    of Economic Arbitration, seeking hundreds of millions of US Dollars
    in million in compensatory damages.
    Harutunian is negotiating with the newly appointed chief manager
    of Armentel, Vasily Fetsis. Armenpress learned from well-informed
    sources that an amicable settlement of the dispute is possible in the
    event of mutually beneficial proposals, which were not disclosed yet.
    For the Armenian side this means good quality communication.
    OTE's priority in Armenia's market is to enlarge the network of
    mobile phone communication, that will allow it to improve its
    financial standing, but despite this change in its policy Armenian
    government decision stripping ArmenTel of its lucrative monopoly on
    mobile phone services and Armenia's Internet traffic with the outside
    world enters into force on June 30.
    Armentel says it has invested some $217 million in Armenia's
    telecommunications and plans to invest another 25 million euros this
    year to expand mobile phone network.
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