Eagle Mobile lands off with Albanian administration phone numbers on hold

Artan P쳮aska
apernaska@tiranatimes.com
Eagle Mobile, the latest cell phone operator introduced in Albania, signed an agreement with the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Telecommunications to supply mobile phone services to Albania’s public administration.
Both the ministry and the company declared that Eagle Mobile will supply mobile-phone services to eight ministries and that 70,000 employees will be bestowed with a special fixed price (5 lek멠to call each other.
Unless each ministry has averagely 8750 employees, this huge ensemble of 70,000 employees should otherwise be understood as the total potential of people working in the Albanian administration and concerned by the group-tariff and not as direct and automatic receivers of the service.
The agreement helps reduce and fix the reference prices for mobile-phone costs for user phones that are paid by the state. The choice of the company was subject to a tender out of which, Eagle Mobile emerged victorious. According to the agreement all the administration will be included in a single group and the tariffs of this group will be 5 Lek롰er minute. “The administration employees will enjoy these tariffs. This agreement will have double benefits: the operative expenses will be reduced for that contingent of employees whose telephony expenses are faced partly or completely from the state, and this development will be in the favor of the officials which are going to take the decision Š[to use Eagle Mobile] because the service will become cheaper,” emphasized Sokol Olldashi, the Minister of Public Works, Transport and Telecommunications, after signing the agreement.
This agreement gives the Turkish-owned company a strategic landmark opportunity even though the contract is signed to be valid for a year. “We will offer our services not only to 70 thousand employees of the public administration, but also to their family members. Meanwhile the other public institutions who desire to be inside this tariff and opportunity, are welcomed,” declared the General Director of Eagle Mobile, Ali Taskin.
The cost for calling other operators has not been disclosed.
Three cell-phone operators are active in Albania: Albanian Mobile Communication (AMC), Vodafone Albania, and Eagle Mobile. The first two operate under Greek control, while Eagle Mobile runs under Turkish control. A fourth mobile phone operator is expected to join the Albanian market.
The actual operators claim a total of about 2.5 million clients in a country with a population of over 3 million. But the potential for a higher number of users exist, since many people own phone numbers from more than one company.