E-communication market registers growth

TIRANA, April 9 – Albania’s electronic communication market continued growing in 2011 in all its segments, mobile and fixed telephony as well as internet, according to an annual report by the Electronic and Postal Communication Authority (AKEP).
The number of mobile phone subscribers in 2011, when another fourth operator launched operations rose by 15 percent to 5.2 million, for a resident population 2.8 million people, revealing that almost every resident Albanian possesses at least two SIM cards. While Albania’s mobile penetration rate stands at a record 185 percent, the situation with fixed-line telephony lags behind with an estimated 12 percent, considerably lower to the EU 27 average rate of 45 percent.
While 2011 revenue for the four operators of the mobile companies are not available yet, AKEP says the operators revenues declined for the second year in a row because of lower tariffs from the watchdog’s interventions and tougher competition. The four mobile operators and Albtelecom had a market share of 92 percent in 2010, down from 95 percent in 2010 while alternative operators increased their market share to 8 percent.
Latest data Turkish-owned Eagle Mobile was the only mobile operator to register growth both in revenues and subscribers during 2010.
Around 166,000 Albanian households, or 22 percent of the total, are reported to have broadband internet access. AKEP also reports over 13,000 business subscribers.
Latest INSTAT data show the post-telecommunication branch rose by rose by 3.8 year-on-year in the final quarter of 2011.