“Many changes in the 3G market are ahead of us. AMC is the company who is set to break the monopoly on 3G in Albania,” said AMC’s CEO Dimitris Blatsios
Tirana Times
TIRANA, Sept. 5 – AMC has been announced as the winner of the second 3G licence after offering 15.1 million Euros, 2.6 million more than the price tag which the government had set.The Albanian Mobile Communications (AMC) outbid Eagle Mobile which offered 12.9 million Euros in the tender organized by the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority (AKEP).Speaking after the bid opening, AMC’s CEO, Dimitris Blatsios, said: “Many changes in the 3G market are ahead of us. AMC is the company who is set to break the monopoly on 3G in Albania. We have been patiently waiting to get the chance to provide the Albanian market with reliable and cost effective data products, based on the latest and most advanced 3G technology. Our subscribers enjoy a high quality communication network in every part of the country and now we will be able to provide them the highest speed Internet and Data access. A new era in telecommunications has just begun.”
The tender’s regulation foresees that the highest bidder gets 90 percent of points while the company which offers the faster coverage will get 10 points. In 2009, Greece’s COSMOTE bought the remaining 12.6 percent stake in AMC for 48.2 million Euros. AMC has been operating in the Albanian market since 2000.
The award of a second 3G licence is expected to increase competition and end the current monopoly Vodafone Albania has. The Ministry of Innovation says the granting of a second 3G licence is another step forward in the Digital Albania project, enabling faster data transmission and internet speed.
In November 2010, Vodafone Albania was announced the winner of the first 15-year licence after offering 31.4 million euros. Vodafone’s only competitor in the race was Turkish-owned Eagle Mobile which offered 12.6 million Euros. First mobile operator AMC and newly launched Plus Communication boycotted the first tender in protest of the government’s decision to grant only one 3G license.
The Ministry has hinted it will award other licenses saying that “the granting of 3G licences is a process of successive steps, continuing in time as shown by the experience of other countries which applied the 3G technology earlier.”
In September 2010, the four mobile phone companies asked the government to issue four licences instead of one and at a cheaper price than the initial 12.5 million Euros, saying it would avoid the creation of a monopoly.
The Competition Authority warned earlier that the granting of a single 3G licence in November 2010 had limited competition among mobile operators, and asked the government to take immediate measures to liberalize the 3G mobile phone market. In some recommendations made to the Ministry of Innovation and IT, the Competition Authority described the granting of a single 3G licence as a violation of the competition protection law and abuse of dominant position despite the fact that it may be temporary.
“These licences could be granted at the same time so that free and efficient competition on the 3G service is enhanced. The terms of granting these licences should be the same to those determined in the first awarded licence,” recommended the Competition Commission in its recent decision after examining the information and procedures followed in the 3G tender held on November 8, 2010, when Vodafone Albania was announced the winner of the 15-year licence.
According to the Authority, the launch of 3Gנwhich refers to the third generation of mobile telephone technologyנis necessary to the further development of information technology and wireless internet in Albania.
Albania became the last country in the Balkans to issue permits for 3G technology, which enables faster internet services, including video calls, on mobile phones.Currently four companies, AMC, Vodafone Albania, Eagle Mobile and Plus Communication operate in the Albanian market.
The number of mobile subscribers in 2010 increased by 11 percent to 4.5 million for a population of around 3.5 million, a figure which shows more than 1/3 of subscribers have at least two SIM cards.
