Plus against single license in new 3G tender

TIRANA, June 14 – The recent announcement by the government that a second 3G license will be issued has not been welcomed by the three competing mobile operators.
Plus Communication, the fourth mobile operator on the Albanian market, says the granting of second 3G license does not reduce the 3G monopoly but puts the market in a dangerous oligopoly situation, and discriminating the remaining operators.
Plus, the only 100 percent Albanian-owned consortium on the telecommunications market which launched operations last December, suggests that the only way to attain a competitive market with affordable rates for customers is to grant three licenses. Furthermore, Plus has stated that the starting license price tag of 12.5 million Euros set by the Innovation and IT Ministry is very high.
However, the request is unlikely to be taken into consideration due to the government’s stated intention to liberalize the 3G market slowly. In September 2010, the four mobile phone companies asked the government to issue four licenses instead of one and at a cheaper price than the initial 12.5 million Euros, saying it would avoid the creation of a monopoly.
Three mobile companies, AMC, Eagle Mobile and Plus Communication will compete for the second license.
The legal and technical terms are the same as those in the previous tender, in which Vodafone Albania was announced the winner after offering 31.4 million Euros. The tender will open in the coming days and will be managed by the Electronic and Postal Communication Authority (AKEP).