TIRANA, May 23 – Albania’s Competition Authority has launched a probe into the country’s main three mobile operators over allegations of limited competition in a market operating under oligopoly conditions.
Under a decision made this week, the competition watchdog decided to launch a preliminary probe into the three biggest foreign-owned mobile operators after signs of coordinated behavior following the simultaneous increase in prices of standard pre-paid packages late last March.
Starting April 11, pre-paid 28-day standard bundles offering a mix of national minutes, text messages and internet access, increased by 100 lek to 1,110 lek (€8) in all three main operators, Vodafone, Telekom Albania and Albtelecom.
“Data by the AKEP regulator shows that the mobile phone market has the structure of an oligopoly market with an operator having a dominant position in the respective retail mobile services and two other operators having stable market shares,” says the competition watchdog.
“All three operators dominate 95 percent of retail mobile services and under legal provisions, there exists the possibility of abuse of dominant market position,” it adds.
Findings of the preliminary probe, covering January-May 2017, will be key to the competition watchdog’s decision on launching an in-depth enquiry that could lead to penalties for the country’s leading mobile operators.
Latest 2015 data shows leading Vodafone Albania operator, part of UK-based giant Vodafone Group, continues dominating the mobile market with 47 percent market share in terms of revenue, followed by Telekom Albania (former AMC), part of German Deutsche Telekom with 34 percent, Turkish-owned Albtelecom and Eagle Mobile with 12 percent, and Albanian-owned Plus Communication with 6.6 percent share.
Starting March 2016, Albania’s main three mobile operators have cut their monthly pre-paid packages to 28 days, down from a previous 30 days, indirectly increasing costs for prepaid users, accounting for the overwhelming majority of 92 percent of active mobile subscribers.
Albania’s mobile operators struggled to significantly increase their income for the fourth year in a row amid tougher competition leading to lower rates and increasing use of smartphone apps replacing traditional call and text message services.
Mobile operators’ revenue slightly rose by 2.4 percent to 33.9 billion lek (€248 million) in 2016 after hitting a decade-low in 2014, according to a report by the electronic communications regulator, AKEP.
In its annual report, AKEP said pre-paid subscribers not using promotional offers face tariffs up to 14 times higher than the average rates of 2.83 lek (€0.02) /minute VAT included for 2016.
