TIRANA, May 3 – Albania’s mobile operators struggled to significantly increase their income for the fourth year in a row amid tougher competition leading to lower rates and increasing use of smartphone apps replacing traditional call and text message services.
Mobile operators’ revenue slightly rose by 2.4 percent to 33.9 billion lek (€248 million) in 2016 after hitting a decade-low in 2014, according to a report by the electronic communications regulator, AKEP.
The market started slightly shrinking in terms of revenue in 2009 after the successful launch of the third operator, Turkish-owned Eagle Mobile and Albanian-owned Plus two years later.
The 2016 airtime also dropped by 8 percent while SMSs registered a modest 1 percent increase following a downward trend in the past three years as smartphone apps replace traditional services.
The number of active mobile phone users, defined as those that have made or received at least a call or SMS in the last three months, slightly dropped to 3.4 million. About half of the active users, some 1.7 million subscribers had access to 3G and 4G services.
Active users in 2016 carried out an average of 166 minutes of outgoing calls a month in 2016, down 9 percent compared to 2015, sent the same number of 39 text messages a month and consumed 1.48 GB of broadband internet, up 68 percent compared to the previous year.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) and the average revenue per minute (ARPM), measuring the operators revenues and indirectly tariffs charged on users have followed a constant downward trend in the past decade due to tougher competition among four mobile operators, including Albanian-owned Plus which has gained a 5 percent market share.
While no data are available for 2016 yet, ARPM dropped to 2.36 lek (€0.017)/minute in 2015 while ARPU also fell to a historic low of 5,125 lek (€37.5) a year in one of the lowest regional rates.
Starting March 2016, Albania’s main three mobile operators have cut their monthly pre-paid packages to 28 days, down from a previous 30 days, indirectly increasing costs for consumers. Prepaid users account for the overwhelming majority of 92 percent of active mobile subscribers.
Four mobile operators are present in Albania including Vodafone Albania, part of UK-based giant Vodafone Group, Telekom Albania (former AMC), part of German Deutsche Telekom, Turkish-owned Albtelecom and Eagle Mobile and Albanian-owned Plus Communication.
