Some 200,000 numbers ported in two years

TIRANA, July 8 – Some 200,000 mobile subscribers have ported their numbers since May 2011 when Albania offered the number portability service, allowing subscribers to port their numbers to any of the four mobile companies operating in Albania within three days and free of charge. The Electronic and Postal Communications Authority (AKEP) says some 1,000 fixed-line subscribers have also ported their numbers since the service was made available last April. “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 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.
“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.
Data made available by the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority (AKEP) show the number of mobile phone subscribers in 2012 reached 5.6 million, double compared to the 2.8 million residents in Albania as revealed by the latest 2011 housing and population census. The number of subscribers is 7 percent higher compared to 2011, revealing that almost every Albanian holds at least two SIM cards. AKEP says the number of active subscribers (those who have used mobile services in the past three months) is 3.5 million which is 14 percent more compared to 2011 with a mobile penetration rate of 125 percent, almost the same compared to the EU average.
In 2012, mobile airtime grew by 14 to 17 percent while SMSs rose by a huge 75 to 83 percent measured by the number of active users. An active subscriber spend an average of 319 minutes of airtime a month compared to 277 minutes in 2011 and 35 SMSs a month compared to 19 SMSs in 2011.
“The trend of the reduction of mobile tariffs continued even in 2012 mainly as a result of tougher market competition, the reduction of termination tariffs among operators and the positive impact from the mobile number portability,” says AKEP.