Reaching Out to Armenia Gets Easier : Switch to Digital Phone System Cuts Wait From Weeks to Minutes

It took Louisa Gourjian of La Crescenta five minutes to call her husband, Vahik, in Yerevan, Armenia, to wish him “Happy Birthday.�

“I couldn’t believe it,� said Louisa Gourjian, the executive director of the Armenian Relief Society in Glendale. Vahik Gourjian was in Armenia on business and in the past, Louisa has had to wait weeks to call relatives there. But on her husband’s birthday earlier this month, she said, “I got the line and everything was perfect.�

Before Armenia became the first Soviet republic to have international direct-dial telephone service recently, all calls went through an operator in Moscow.

Now, with the installation of a digital switching system, calls can be dialed directly. The revolutionary service means that the approximately 300,000 Armenians in Southern California can call their homeland without the hassle of old.

“It’s an absolute miracle,� said Harut Sassounian, executive director of Glendale’s United Armenian Fund, which airlifts medical supplies, computers and other equipment to Armenia monthly.

“Previously, the only avenue was to send word with a traveler or hope you would get a line through. Now, everyone is going to get a huge phone bill,� he said happily.

With the addition of 180 circuits that the switch provides, the number of calls has jumped “considerably� from the United States to Armenia, said AT&T; spokesman Michael Johnson.

AT&T; would not release exact figures, but Sassounian said the Armenian Ministry of Communications bought $6 million worth of equipment from AT&T; at a discounted rate of about $2 million in December.

Although the service has been in operation since late September, AT&T; officials celebrated its start with a three-way conference call Oct. 24 connecting government officials and students in the republic, Los Angeles and New York.

“Today, Armenian telecommunications leaps seven decades from the 1920s to the 1990s,� Robert S. Avoyan, a telecommunications official in Yerevan, said of that call.

But AT&T;’s job is not over yet, Sassounian said. “The next thing they need to work on is Armenia’s domestic telephone service.�

DIALING DIRECT

To place a call to Armenia directly, customers of AT&T; can dial 011-7-885, plus a city code and the local number. Customers of other long-distance companies can use the service by dialing the AT&T; operator at (800) 874-4000, ext. 199, a U.S. Sprint spokeswoman said. Rates are $1.70 for the initial minute, with $1.55 for additional minutes from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m.; $1.85 for the initial minute and $1.72 for additional minutes from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and $2.25 for the initial minute, and $2.01 for additional minutes from 1 p.m. to 2 a.m.