Vodafone registers significant gains in market share

TIRANA, Nov.17 – Vodafone Albania has 77,000 new users in the first half of 2006. The news was given by its owner company, the important British telecommunications Vodafone last week. The numbers translate into a significant 21.7 percent increase compared to last year. Vodafone published a new financial report highlighting its key performance indicator. For the first six months of the current year Albania had 868,000 subscribers at the end of September this year, according to the report issued by Vodafone. A majority of its customers, ranging at 96.9 percent, are taking advantage of prepaid services. Recently the company has launched better prices for its prepaid contractual arrangements and new services targeted at small businesses, including Internet services. Vodafone Albania’s customer base increased by 9.7 percent for the second quarter of its 2006 fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2007.Average monthly revenue per user, on the quarter ending September, increased as well reaching 2,311 leks ($23.8/18.6 euro), compared to 2,122 leks in the previous quarter and to 2,534 leks in the same period last year. Mobile users are definitely talking more give the voice minutes in the quarter through September which totaled 166 million. Previous figures were 148 million minutes in the quarter through June and 144 million minutes in the corresponding period last year.
Vodafone Albania started operating in 2001, as the second mobile operator in Albania. The first mobile services provider on the Albanian market was AMC. Vodafone Albania is owned by Vodafone-Panafon, a consortium of Vodafone International Holding and Greek telecommunication company Panafon. It had an estimated 49.1% share in the domestic mobile market at the end of September, when there were around 1.769 million wireless users in Albania out of 3.13million total inhabitants.