Since April 1, 2013 the service is now being offered all over Albania allowing fixed-line subscribers to switch the operator but keep the original phone number
TIRANA, April 10 – After the mobile telephony, the number portability service is now being offered nationwide for all fixed-line telephony subscribers. The Electronic and Postal Communications Authority (AKEP) says since April 1, 2013, the service is now being offered all over Albania allowing fixed-line subscribers to switch the operator but keep the original phone number.
The number portability service for fixed line subscribers was initially launched in September 2012 when the southern districts of Berat, Lushnje and Pogradec became the first to offer the fixed-line number portability service. In the first days of this month, the service was also made available in Tirana where the first fixed-line numbers were ported.
“Through this new service to the fixed-line phone subscribers, AKEP is giving another opportunity to the market to increase competition and offer consumers alternatives to new competitive services, quality and prices,” the Authority said in a statement.
The number of fixed-line telephone subscribers dropped by 27,000, or 8 percent in 2012. “The declining trend in the number of fixed line subscribers is following that of the European Union although the penetration rate at 11 percent in Albania continues remaining very low compared to the EU average of 40 percent, says AKEP.
Back in 2011, the number of fixed-line mobile subscribers dropped to 325,000 down from 339,000.
Albtelocom has the majority 244,000 subscribers compared to 81,000 for alternative operators which have considerably increased their market share in the past few years.
Two years after the mobile number portability service was made available, some 150,000 subscribers have successfully ported their numbers, the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority says. Mobile subscribers continue being active in choosing their service providers and tariff plans which best suit them. It is worth stressing that the number of users who have benefitted from new tariff plans is several times higher than the number of ported numbers, says the Authority.
Since May 2011, when Albania became the last regional country to offer the number portability service, mobile phone subscribers have been able to port their numbers to any of the four mobile companies operating in Albania within three days and free of charge.
