TIRANA, Nov. 9 – Turkish-owned Eagle Mobile was the only mobile operator to register growth both in revenues and subscribers during 2010, an annual report published by Albania’s the Electronic and Postal Communication Authority (AKEP) has revealed.
Data show Eagle Mobile, which has been operating in Albania for 3 and a half years, saw a 36 percent increase in the number of subscribers in 2010 reaching more than 822,000, up from 601,000 in 2009, with its market share growing to 18 percent.
Eagle Mobile’ share of revenues in the mobile market increased to 12 percent, with revenues at around 5.2 billion lek, registering an 18 percent increase compared to 2009.
Eagle’s postpaid customers account for 12 percent of its total subscribers compared to only 8 percent in the three other companies.
Eagle Mobile set a new record by entering the Albanian market of telecommunication on March 12, 2008. In a very short period of 6 months, Eagle Mobile covered the entire territory of the country– exceeding its predictions. On December 31st, 2008, the company attained coverage by 97.8% of the population of the country and 90% of the territory.
AMC, Vodafone, Plus Communication
AMC, the first mobile operator in Albania since 2000, part of Greece’s Cosmote Group, saw its revenues drop for the second year in a row to 16.5 billion lek, down from around 20 billion lek in 2009 and 23 billion lek in 2008. The number of AMC subscribers slightly rose to 2 billion, compared to 1.9 billion in 2009. AMC had a 40 percent market share in revenues and 44 percent of the subscribers share in 2010, according to AKEP.
Last September, AMC was announced the winner of the second 3G license after offering 15.1 million Euros, 2.6 million more than the price tag government had set.
Meanwhile, Vodafone Albania, has the majority 48 percent share in revenues although having less subscribers than AMC. AKEP data show Vodafone’s revenues continued dropping for the second year in a row registering 20.1 billion lek in 2010, down from 22.8 billion lek in 2009 and 25 billion lek in 2008.
Vodafone Albania, owned at 50% by Vodafone Europe B.V. and 50% by Vodafone Panafon International Holdings B.V. launched its GSM services in Albania in August 2001.
In November 2010, Vodafone Albania became the first operator to offer 3G service in Albania after winning a 15-year license for 31.4 million Euros.
Plus Communication, the only wholly Albanian-owned mobile operator which launched its services in late in 2010, numbered 28,162 subscribers at the end of 2010 and revenues at a modest 10 million lek.
The number of mobile subscribers in 2010 increased by 9 percent to 4.5 million for a population of around 3.5 million, a figure which shows more than 1/3 of subscribers has at least two SIM cards.
Currently four companies, AMC, Vodafone Albania, Eagle Mobile and Plus Communication operate in the Albanian market.
Increased competition and interventions by the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority have considerably lowered mobile tariffs during the past 3 years in Albania, but still remain above the average in the region.
AKEP reports mobile phone calls registered a significant 60 to 70 percent increase in 2010 because of lower tariffs. Meanwhile, the number of SMSs fell by 16 percent compared to 2009 because of the ongoing high tariffs criticized even by government.
Data show Albania’s mobile penetration rate climbed to 140 percent at the end 2010, which is 18 percent higher than the EU average.
Internet Market
Considered a luxury only a couple of years ago, internet service is becoming more and more widespread even for Albanian households following the more competitive prices operators offer and increased speed. Data from the Electronic and Postal Communication Authority show internet access fees have dropped to the average level in the region for the 2 Mbps unlimited access compared to a few years ago when the tariffs were the highest in region.
Data show the number of household subscribers having broadband internet access in 2010 increased to 110,000 or 13.7 percent of total families, while the number of business subscribers rose to 10,000.
The number of mobile phone subscribers having internet access has also risen to 1.2 million with Vodafone subscribers having the 3G service since January this year.
The Electronic Communications Authority says that another factor which has lowered tariffs and increased speed for broadband users is also ISP connection to the Global Internet whose speed rose to 14 Gbs at the end of 2010 compared to 6 Gbs at the end of 2009.
The liberalization of the al. domain registration since March 2010 has also lowered tariffs to 20 dollars per two years compared to 75 dollars earlier doubling the number of registered subjects.
The number of internet service providers (ISPs) at the end of June 2010 was 27, public internet access points increased to 1,319 while internet cafes to 731.
Internet speed also improved to 1-2 Mbs compared to 256 Kbs at the end of 2009. Internet tariffs are also reported to have dropped, with 2 Mbps internet access offered at the same prices as 1Mbps in 2009.
Experts say the further spread of internet is being prevented by high access fees which start from 10 Euros a month for home internet users to 140 Euros for businesses.
Surveys show people aged under 30 make up the biggest number of internet users with 80 percent.
The number of 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, according to the latest statistics published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Data show Albania’s internet penetration has grown more than 430 since 2000 when only 0.1 percent of the population was estimated to be internet users.
However, in the 2010 estimates, ITU calculates the total Albania population at around 3 million people compared to 3.6 million in 2009.
The rapid increase started in 2007 when the penetration rate climbed to 15.3 percent of the population up from 2.4 percent in 2006.
Albania is also estimated to have 865,000 Facebook users in 2010
Nevertheless, the internet penetration rate remains far from the EU 27 average of around 70 percent in 2010. According to ITU, Albania rate is almost the same to neighboring Montenegro’s 44 percent but worse than Macedonia’s 51 percent.
