Wednesday, February 6 2013 19:46

Armenia's terminal business monopolist, TelCell, imposes a commission fee on Idram payments


ArmInfo. Armenia's terminal business monopolist, TelCell (over 90% of the market), has imposed a commission fee on the payments through the Idram e-money system.

According to Idram's report in Facebook, the commission has been charged by all Telcell terminals since Feb 1 2013. Experts believe that because of this fee Idram may lose clients, who may prefer no longer making e-payments. By doing this, according to experts, TelCell is not only ruining Idram but may lose weight itself. In fact, it is leaving no alternative to either people who once enjoyed free payment services or potential e-money market players. Thus, quite popular worldwide, the e-money system is finding no support in Armenia and is becoming a loss-making business due to the efforts of certain monopolists. The terminal business in Armenia has also become a prey to monopoly. Today we have only two companies left on the market, TelCell and Tandem, with the latter having just 10% of the market and handling mostly tax and state payments.

In 2008-2009 there we as many as 6 players: TelCell, Megapanther, Tandem, MJPA, OSMP and Quadraphone. In Feb 2012 TelCell took over its last rival, Megapanther, who did not charge a commission.

According to rough estimates, the average monthly volume of Armenia's instant payments market is 500mln AMD, with 70% being mobile phone payments, 20-25% utility payments, 5-10 Internet, TV and other payments.

TelCell is the first and biggest payment terminal network in Armenia. Set up in 2007, it accepts payments for 85 communication and other service providers. TelCell has over 300 terminals - mostly in big cities. The company's web- site does not provide information about its shareholders and financial performance.

As of Feb 1 2013 Idram tariffs were as follows: 2% for 1,001-4,999 AMD payments, 1% for 5,000 and more AMD and 30 AMD for 100-1000 AMD.
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