Observers and a number of economic experts link the recently observed depreciation of the Armenian national currency, the dram, with the parliamentary elections and post-election realities in Armenia.

Today Orange presented two new offers in the framework of UEFA EURO 2012TM global sponsorship. Starting from today and until May 30 those customers of prepaid service who will top up their account with 500 AMD and more, and whose recharge will be the consecutive 50,000th will get Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman smartphone, and the customer among these happy ones who will have made the biggest top-up will get the most coveted gift of football fans: trip for two to the final game of UEFA EURO 2012.

Starting from today Orange Internet Now, MyFi and Flybox subscribers, who will consume their high-speed internet traffic by the end of the month and will still wish to continue using high-speed internet, can buy additional bundles of high-speed internet traffic they will need to use until the end of the month.

Today Orange presented Orange Family pack, which contains three SIM cards at a time for all family members, enabling them to talk to each other at 0 AMD/min as much as they wish. To talk free within the Family pack each subscriber will pay 20 AMD daily fee. Orange Family pack can also be joined by an already existing Orange Let’s Talk subscriber, who also can avail himself/herself of the possibility to talk free within the Family pack.

From now on Orange Every Month and Let’s Talk services subscribers (save the subscribers of Simple tariff plan) can get not only on-net and off-net minutes and SMS bundles with their bonus points, but also Internet bundles. With 200 bonus points they can get 25MB Internet bundle, with 350 bonus points – 50MB and with 600 bonus points – 100 MB.

Orange reshuffles the list of Orange Zone countries which now includes the USA. Now, while roaming on AT&T USA network Orange customers can enjoy a unique 250 AMD rate for all outgoing and incoming calls, SMS and GPRS. This is a great news for those who travel to the USA.

Economist Tatul Manaseryan, Head of Alternative Research Center, assessing the economic results of the first quarter of 2012, said at a press conference Wednesday that “surprisingly” stable trends are being recorded, despite this being an election year.

The Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant will continue operation beyond September 1, 2016, after a decision approved by the Government on April 19.

The World Economic Forum competitiveness report for 2011-2012 ranks Armenia 92 among 142 countries, based on performances in 12 categories influencing economic viability.

ArmenTel (Beeline trademark) announced an action for regional tariff plan users. Within the framework of the action, all legal entities, who get connected to one of Beeline’s regional mobile tariff plans from April 15 to June 15, will get free 300 minutes to communicate inside the network, can send 100 free SMS and MMS messages and use 100MB mobile internet. These bonuses are equally provided to the subscriber within the first 3 months after joining the action.