"Fact" daily writes:
The tension that arose in the telecommunications market of Armenia in recent days, which ended with the termination of contracts with a number of billing companies, was actually formed as a result of months-long disagreements. At the heart of the problem is the amount of commissions, which, according to information available within the market, has been disproportionately high for a long time, especially for communication operators. From February 1, it is no longer possible to pay for Viva, Team Telecom Armenia and Ucom services through Telcell, EasyPay and other systems.
Officially, the parties talk about the disagreement over the terms of cooperation, but the real picture, according to "Past" information, is much more concrete. According to the assessment of professional circles, billing companies demanded commissions from communication operators, which in some cases were up to 4 times higher than the rates that the same systems use, for example, for utility services.
This difference has long been viewed by operators as a market imbalance that distorts the competitive environment and creates an unreasonable financial burden. The communication operators, according to their public announcements, proposed to adjust the commissions to the comparable tariffs in the market, even discussing the options of phased reduction. However, the billing companies rejected these proposals without providing any economically justified explanations or counter-options. Operators do not hide that the simultaneous and identical rejection of several large players of the payment settlement market is particularly worrying, which, according to them, can also be considered as problematic behavior in the competitive field.
In this context, it is noteworthy that the payment companies announce the application to the competition commission, but so far they do not publish why significantly higher percentages have been applied to the telecommunications sector than to other major services. Although the consequences of the change are temporarily felt by the subscribers, within the industry they are convinced that the root of the issue is not the interests of the consumer, but the need to review the financial conditions formed over the years. In this sense, what is happening is considered not just a technical dispute, but an attempt by the telecommunications industry to restore a fair market balance.
Yesterday "Past" newspaper appealed to the billing organizations, offering to present their point of view, taking into account that the telecoms made certain statements, but the billing organizations did not respond in any concrete way to the accusations addressed to them. Privately, our journalist called Telcell and EasyPay yesterday.
EasyPay promised to forward the contacts to the appropriate employee to contact us, but we never received a call before sending the newspaper to the printer. Telcell expressed willingness to provide clarifications, our reporter sent the relevant questions, but again we did not receive an answer before the end of the working day.
We will present their point of view if we receive a response from both the mentioned organizations and other billing companies.
Details in today's issue of "Past" daily
