Internet penetration climbs to 44% of population

TIRANA, April 18 – 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 neighbouring Montenegro’s 44 percent but worse than Macedonia’s 51 percent.
The International Telecommunication Union, ITU is the leading United Nations agency for information and communication technology issues, and the global focal point for governments and the private sector in developing networks and services.
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 Gbps at the end of 2010 compared to 6 Gbps 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 Mbits compared to 256 kbit/s 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.