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YEREVAN, DECEMBER 18, ARMENPRESS:Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission has reviewed today License 60 that granted ArmenTel telephone operator exclusive rights in several services, lifting its monopolies on internet data transmission and Internet voice transfer, but the company will hold exclusive rights in fixed-telephone services. Lifting ArmenTel’s monopolies was one of the terms of the company’s sale to the Russian Vimpelcom, which now owns its 90 percent stake. Now after this major change which Internet providers said retarded IT development in the country, they may sign separate agreements with international providers for transmission of data. The change also allows the second mobile phone provider- VivaCell- which had to use ArmenTel’s stations, to create its own station for transmission of international voice data. The Public Services Regulatory Commission told ArmenTel and Viva Cell to incorporate changes into their inter-operability agreement until February 1, 2007. But a member of the Commission warned this does not mean immediate opening up of the sector to competition, as they have yet to address a great deal of both legislative and technical problems. Russian Vimpelcom paid 341.9 million euros ($436.3 million) plus about 40 million euros (US$51 million) in debt to takeover ArmenTel from the Greek OTE.