TIRANA, June 30 -The rapid growth of mobile phone and internet market has overshadowed the traditional fixed line telephony whose calls have dropped to a record low.
A report published by Albania’s electronic communications authority shows the number of fixed-line phone subscribers suffered another drastic cut for the third year in a row in 2014 when the fixed line penetration rate dropped to 9 percent compared to the EU average of 39 percent.
The report shows the number of fixed line phone subscribers dropped to around 236,000 at the end of 2014, down 16 percent compared to 2013 and a record high of 332,000 just before this market embarked on a downward trend. Meanwhile, calls from fixed-line operators accounted for only 3 percent of total calls from fixed and mobile phones.
Leading fixed-line operator, Turkish-run Albtelecom, once a monopoly has lost around a quarter of its market share in the past four years as the number of alternative operators has risen to 77 offering fixed line telephony through internet connection.
Albetelocom which has merged with Eagle Mobile operator had 183,000 subscribers in 2014, down 34 percent compared to 2010 but maintained its market share of around 75 percent thanks to new promotional packages offering internet access, mobile and fixed line telephony as well as IPTV. Alternative operators had 53,000 subscribers at the end of 2014, down 25 percent compared to 2013.
Some 9,500 subscribers have ported their fixed line numbers mainly to alternative operators since the service was made available in September 2012 allowing users to switch operator but retain the number.
Meanwhile, the number of active mobile users dropped to 3.4 million in 2014, down from 3.7 million at the end of 2013 with a penetration rate of 119 percent compared to 130 percent a year earlier.
Mobile phone tariffs continued dropping even in 2014 with Albanians spending an average of 2.63 lek (€0.018)/minute, down from 3.13 lek (€0.021)/minute in 2013 and 6.49 lek (€0.045)/minute in 2010.
