Which telecom operator to choose in Armenia?

There are 3 mobile operators in Armenia: Ucom, Viva MTS, Team. Team has the cheapest tariff: “Smart” for 1500 AMD per month. The cheapest unlimited tariff is offered by Ucom: Level Up for 4900 AMD per month.

There are three mobile operators in Armenia: Ucom, Viva MTS, Team. Ucom is the only operator that is not owned by a Russian company. VIVA-MTS owns MTS PJSC, and Team owns VimpelCom PJSC (Beeline). VIVA has the most subscribers, Team is in second place.

The quality of communication is from 2G in remote and mountainous areas to 4G in large cities. In the subway, the network also catches. In our Internet speed measurement in an office in the center of Yerevan, Ucom showed 30 Mbps, Team - 10 Mbps, VIVA-MTS - 2.34 Mbps. Thus, the capabilities of all three operators are more than sufficient for comfortable surfing or watching videos in 1080p on YouTube.

If a telecom operator is not satisfied with something, it is easy to switch to another: “mobile slavery” has been absent since 2014.

Let's get acquainted with three terms that can be misleading when choosing a tariff.

Prepaid rate. When connecting it, you must first pay, and then use the minutes and gigabytes.

The postpaid tariff works in the opposite way: payment occurs at the end of the month. At the same time, it will not be possible to go beyond the tariff limits. Often postpaid plans include more minutes and gigabytes of traffic.

This is where the differences between prepaid and postpaid rates end. They carry a marketing rather than a practical component.

This type of tariff is intended for calls from regions. An increased fee is charged for its use in Yerevan. It does not carry any advantages, such as improved communication quality in the mountains. So just ignore regional rates.

You can buy and top up a SIM card at the service offices: Ucom, VIVA-MTS, team.

USSD requests - calls to the operator through a call to a number of the form *XXX#. Using USSD requests, you can, for example, activate roaming, convert minutes to gigabytes, or change the tariff.

Operators use Armenian by default. You can change it with Ucom (dial: * 111 * 5#) and with VIVA-MTS ( * 129 * 2#). Team does not provide the ability to change the language. But his website has list of USSD requests.

For a correct comparison in each category, we took tariffs that differ from each other by no more than 200 AMD, and endowed with similar capabilities. On the website of each operator, you can find other packages that are not included in the comparison.
What do table rows mean?

Line	Decryption
Name	Tariff name on the operator's website
Price ֏/month	Tariff cost in AMD per month. The current ruble to dram exchange rate is available at rate.am
Internet (GB)	The amount of Internet traffic that can be spent within the tariff
Minutes of communication	How many minutes you can communicate with subscribers of other operators
Unlimited social networks	When using these social networks, traffic will not be spent. Official apps from the AppStore or PlayMarket must be installed
Unlimited Services	When using these services, traffic will not be consumed. Official services from the AppStore or PlayMarket must be installed

The minimum rate is suitable for travel, transit trip, second number and situations in which you need to drastically reduce costs.

	Ucom	team	VIVA-MTS
Name	Level Up	Smart	Start
Price ֏/month	1800	1500	2000
Internet (GB)	6	3	5
Minutes of communication	200 (Armenia, Artsakh, USA and Canada)	10,000 to Team numbers	300 (Armenia, Artsakh, USA, Canada, MTS Russia subscribers). + 10,000 minutes within the network when the package is used up
Unlimited social networks	7	0	8
	Viber, Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Zangi, Signal, Facetime	No	TikTok, Instagram, Viber, Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Zangi, Twitter
Unlimited Services	13	4	4
	Zoom, Skype, Google, Maps, Yandex, Maps, Yandex, Taxi, ggTaxi, Coursea, Doulingo, Microsoft, Teams, Google, Meet, Google, Classroom, uMediaroom	Yandex Music, Yandex Navigator, Yandex Taxi, Yandex Disk	Zoom, Skype, IMUSIC, IVI

Thus, you can tweet unlimited only on Viva, send unlimited Signals on the Level Up 1800 package, and Team for 1500 is an ideal solution for introverts.

 

This category includes tariffs with the best ratio of gigabytes / minutes of communication / price. Often, 5-7 gigabytes of traffic is enough for a month.

In addition, in VIVA-MTS you can exchange minutes for gigabytes, and in Ucom you can accumulate the rest of the traffic from the previous month (but not more than two monthly volumes: if your package has 8 GB of Internet, you can “accumulate” only 8 GB).

	Ucom	team	VIVA-MTS
Name	Level Up	be free	Y
Price ֏/month	2900	2900	2800
Internet (GB)	8	10	10
Minutes of communication	450 (Armenia, Artsakh, USA and Canada)	450 (Armenia, Artsakh, USA, Canada + Beeline RF and Tele2 to numbers with certain codes)	800 (Armenia, Artsakh, USA, Canada, MTS Russia subscribers) + 10,000 minutes within the network when the package is used up
Unlimited social networks	12	11	10
	Telegram, Whatsapp, Instagram, Messenger, Facebook, Viber, VK, TikTok, Zangi, Snapchat, facetime, signal	Telegram, Whatsapp, Instagram, Messenger, Facebook, Viber, VK, TikTok, Zangi, Snapchat, OK	Telegram, Whatsapp, Instagram, Messenger, Facebook, Viber, TikTok, Zangi, Snapchat, Twitter
Unlimited Services	16	5	6
	Spotify, iTunes, Yandex Music, Zoom, Skype, SoundCloud, Google Maps, Yandex Maps, gg Taxi, Yandex Taxi, Coursea, Doulingo, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Google Classroom, uMediaroom	Spotify, iTunes, Yandex Music, Zoom, deezer	Spotify, Zoom, Skype, IMUSIC, IVI, Clubhouse

Ucom's smaller amount of GB is compensated by unlimited services and instant messengers. But if calls are important to you, especially to Russia, then it is more profitable to connect tariffs from MTS or Team.

An unlimited tariff is a good replacement for a home modem when renting an apartment. It is enough to distribute the Internet from a smartphone to a laptop.

It is worth remembering that Ucom has a specific concept of "unlimited": as soon as you spend 200 GB, the speed drops to 512 Kbps. This is not enough even to upload pictures in the telegram feed. Other operators did not notice this feature.

	Ucom	team	VIVA-MTS
Name	Level Up	Be Free Unlimited	unlim
Price ֏/month	4900	4900	4500
Minutes of communication	1500 (Armenia, Artsakh, USA and Canada)	1500 Armenia, Artsakh, USA, Canada + Beeline RF and Tele2 to numbers with certain codes)	450 (Armenia, Artsakh, USA, Canada, MTS Russia subscribers) + 10,000 minutes within the network when the package is used up

Team has the smallest 4G coverage area. This is offset by the best 3G coverage. Moreover, stable 4G is available from all operators in Yerevan. The images below show the 3G coverage areas of each operator. Click on the name to go to the full maps.

Ucom	team	VIVA-MTS</a

Choose according to your tasks and opportunities. Our CV:

• The cheapest — Smart by Team
• Optimal everyday package with 28 unlimited services — Ucom Level Up 2900
• Best Unlimited Package — VIVA-MTS Unlim

On the Team website in the section "Device Settings" you can find step-by-step guides with pictures about using a smartphone, modem and set-top box: from setting up the Internet to checking Static IP.