It seems the days, when I would remember Armentel (now rebranded as Beeline), only with curses and complaints are over. As a very mobile person (many think – too much), I carry two mobile phones with me at all times – this is a reminder of not-so-distant past, when Armentel mobile connection was so bad, that I had to buy a ‘backup’ Viva mobile phone, to make sure I have a working mobile at all times, but also had to keep the Armentel one, because that was the contact number printed on my business-cards, published booklettes and various other promotional materials I had at that point.
Today, as I decided to travel down the tube (subway or metropoliten or whatever else it is called), a phone-call came to my Beeline number, while I was on the way between Republic and Yeritasardakan metro-stations, somewhere deep underground. Wow! That was a pleasant surprise. Back in the office, digging further down I came across with this Beeline announcement, that all 10 Metro-stations in Yerevan now have Beeline connectivity.
On another pleasant note, David_Sand, a media layer, now working for Beeline, reports that 3G – the third generation of more advanced mobile network services, offering greater network capacity and data transmission capabilities able to deliver speeds up to 14.4Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8Mbit/s on the uplink, are now available on Beeline network on the WCDMA range: tested – working everywhere in central Yerevan, on Baghramyan avenue, some places on Komitas and in Zeytun district. To take advantage of the service a 3G capable mobile device (phone, PDA) and willingness to experiment, as official information is still not available on the Beeline site. The launch of 3G connectivity is still in a testing stage, and prices are so far the same as for Beeline GPRS, but once the service is launched officially – the tarriffs will most likely change, I’d expect them to be much cheaper.
Adding to all of the above the internet connectivity services available on the Beeline fixed-line network: the Hi-line ADSL service in particular, which offers broadband connectivity to Armentel fixed-line subscribers for as little as 12,000 AMD ($40US) per month and you’ll have a happy Observer – finally seeing things moving in the right direction with Beeline and internet in Armenia in general.
Artur Papyan
Journalist, blogger, digital security and media consultant
12 Comments
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[…] Armenian Observer says it is happy now that the newly rebranded Beeline company is offering ADSL Internet services at …. It also reports that 3G mobile telecommunications services have finally arrived in Armenia. […]
Without much fanfare, lots of real issues are being addressed: customs, taxes, traffic police, investments. Not sexy stuff but I for one applaud efforts by both government and constructive opposition who are channeling energies toward bettering fundamental issues in Armenia. Look at telecom today compared to anytime in the past 17 years. Fundamentally better across the board in terms of capital investments, competition, appeals to the people in advertisement, corporate sponsorship, social responsibility, you name it.
Seems to look good finally. I checked teh price list for ADSL connection and I am confused. How it comes the price for 10000MB download/monthly is about 10 times higher than the price of the unlimited 256kb connection and 3 times higher than 512kb connection???
Also the price for 800MB is higher than the unlimited plan. Are the speeds higher for the limited plans? It is not indicated anywhere.
Also to tell the truth the 512kb is not impressive at all. I havent seen such an offer in the west for the past 5 years. But again it is better than the 56kb dial up connection and the sloppy ISDN connection.
Here is an excerpt from teh price list:
Ամսական ծառայություններ
Մեգաբայթային սակագնային պլաններ
—
800 ՄԲ 14880
1000 ՄԲ 16800
2000 ՄԲ 27600
3000 ՄԲ 39600
5000 ՄԲ 62400
8000 ՄԲ 93600
10000 ՄԲ 110400
Անսահմանափակ սակագնային պլաններ
Hi-Line Unlimited 256 12000
Hi-Line Unlimited 1024 30000
The Beeline ADSL is a little funky, but if you use TOR or VPN outside, it is pretty great. $40/month is a bit much, but we are extremely happy with it.
“Not sexy stuff but I for one applaud efforts by both government and constructive opposition who are channeling energies toward bettering fundamental issues in Armenia.”
I join you in applauding Arthur Baghdasaryan’s and Vahan Hovhannisyan’s (I assume you meant them when you said “constructive opposition”) personal contributions to improving telecoms in Armenia.Fantastic. Now if we could only solve the whole public toilets issue quicker (yes absolutely our lawmakers today spent hours upon hours discussing toilets in Armenia) , we’d have “sexy” covered, too. Araj Hayastan!
My only gripe is that it’s not so easy for people in rented accommodation to subscribe to the service if the name on the telephone isn’t theirs. As most rentals aren’t done here with official paperwork it’s pretty much impossible, in fact. 🙁
Wish Beeline would offer something to get around that, even if it means a larger deposit. On the other hand, now I will have to push my landlords to actually draw up some paperwork. Maybe this is actually how things change.
In order to have improvements in their lives, citizens have to function within the law.
me, I don’t mean either of them in particular. I actually had in mind all those who actively and visibly or quietly an behind-the-scenes have already made good on a few pieces of pre-election rhetoric.
I think this should be acknowledged as we (rightfully) acknowledge the problems we continue to face.
It is always easier (even if not productive) to make fun of a system or parrot doom-and-gloom scenarios.
“It is always easier (even if not productive) to make fun of a system or parrot doom-and-gloom scenarios.”
Sure, but it isn’t any harder to ascribe everything under God’s sun to the “constructive” authorities and their equally “constructive” counterparts in the “opposition.” Here is something completely unrelated to both but you somehow make that leap, get in a bizarre dig at the “last 17 years” and make an unfounded claim that this is somehow a part of a)a bigger reform effort and b)people making good on pre-election rhetoric. It’s neither.
I disagree. A more competitive climate has been set up in telecom than ever before. This is in sharp contrast to the suicidal monopoly and assisted-theft that the government conducted in the early 90s giving away the telecom sphere in its totality to OTE, and despite finally breaking the monopoly a few years ago that the subsequent government did little to change,
Now this is changing, and I think it is fair to give credit to those in govt and opposition who have pushed to make this a better business environment and – most importantly – better for the consumers.
You can ridicule all you want. I am not ascribing everything under God’s name. I am pointing out improvements encouraged by those who have chosen to WORK to create a better environment rather than hurl stones (literally and figuratively) — these make a difference.
My Beeline ADSL’s been out for 2 days, so…
I’m using Beeline’s ADSL, and I can say, it’s ok, as long as you surf the web, the speed is good. But when I wanted to connect to my office VPN network, it didn’t work. For more than 3 weeks I was buzzing the customer service asking/begging/insisting/demanding to give me the reason for that and each time they was answering with a new nonsense answer like “the manager is not here please call again later”, “please call between 9:00 – 18:00 se we can connect you with tech department”, “we cannot connect you with tech department, but we will pass them your request”, “It’s a known issue and we are working on that”, “You are the first one to address this issue, check your computer setup”…. All the answers were mutually incompatible. I told them for 100 of times that from the same computer I’m able to connect to that VPN server trough other ISPs, I described them my problem each time I call the and the best think they could come up with was suggesting me to increase timeout value on my computer (setting it to 1 hour would be ok for them, I guess). They were suggesting me to submit a written complaint (which, I’m sure, would never get answered). Yea, and I need to mention, that all the times I was calling them I was extremely polite (maybe that’s the problem).
So after all this story, I have real doubts on the level of professionalism of their customer support and technical staff. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe they are good guys, but they make a really bad impression and their behavior is not adequate nor to professionals neither to businessmen.
Anyone, who want to check this, just call their customer support and say you have troubles connecting to some VPN network.
i use this ADSL internet conection wich is 12000 amd per mounth but its not realy 256 k/ps as i know its not so good for a big company likes beee LINE to have a low quality internet like wich we use it now the download speed is not more than 10 k/ps and upl is notmore than 20