Albtelecom deal with Italy’s TIS to increase internet speed

TIRANA, July 27 – Albania’s fixed-line operator Albtelecom signed on Wednesday an agreement with Italy’s Telecom Italia Sparkle (TIS) which will increase internet speed by up to eight times. The deal will increase the transmission capacity of the Bari-Durres fiber-optic line to 20 Gbps, from 2.5 Gbps currently, Albtelecom said in a statement. Speaking at the ceremony, Orhan Coskun, the director general of Albtelecom and Eagle Mobile described the deal as very important for the Turkish-owned company, saying that every investment is aimed at raising customers’ satisfaction and offering services at affordable prices. Paolo Ferrari, the director general of Telecom Italia Sparkle praised the partnership with Albtelecom, saying that Albania’s strategic geographical position made it a key point for Italy to connect with Greece, Montenegro and Macedonia. Innovation and IT Minister Genc Pollo and the director of the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority Piro Xhixho also praised the deal. “Albtelecom has in recent years made steps that have a direct impact on the market. The launch of Eagle Mobile was a great success bringing lower prices and new offers,” said Xhixho. The increase in the transmission capacity will also enable connection to Global Internet through “First Tier Supplier,” more quality ISP services in Albania and in neighbouring countries. TIS and Albtelecom will also improve services in Cloud Computing and Data Center Respective. Since more than one year, investments by Albtelecom have increased connection capacity to Global Internet from 7.5 Gbps to 12 Gbps. The first part of the national fiber optic backbone network project increasing capacity for existing backbones networks has been implemented at 70 percent. The project’s second part which foresees the construction of 800 km fibre optic network has been implemented at 85 percent. The number of internet users has significantly increased during the past few years. According to the latest statistics published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), internet users in Albania in 2010 grew to 1.3 million people or 43.5 percent of the total population, up from 750,000 or 20.6 percent of the population in 2009.