TIRANA, Dec. 19 – The three remaining mobile operators are set to increase their market shares as Plus Communication exits the market on Jan. 1 2018, leaving some 224,000 subscriber with no choice but to switch to either Vodafone, Tekekom Albania or Albtelecom if they want to continue having access to mobile phone services.
UK-based giant Vodafone Albania and Telekom Albania, part of Deutsche Telekom, who each purchased a 50 percent share in Plus’s operations, seem advantaged to gain the highest numbers of Plus subscribers.
Under the deal okayed by country’s competition authority, Plus subscribers will initially be asked whether they want to switch to Vodafone or Telekom Albania although each subscriber can also move to Turkish-owned Telecom Albania, the third largest operator, under the mobile number portability service.
However, Plus’s 066 area code will no longer be available starting Jan. 1 2018.
Data published by the country’s mobile telecommunications authority, AKEP, shows Plus had some 224,000 subscribers at the end of September 2017, some 6.5 percent of the total 3.4 million active subscribers.
When it comes to the market share in terms of income, Plus’s has a 5 percent in a market with an annual turnover of about 34 billion lek (€253 mln), according to 2016 AKEP report.
Plus’s market exit comes seven years after launching its operations as the fourth and sole Albanian-owned mobile operator.
Ongoing financial straits and failure to meet investment requirements and keep up with its competitors led Plus Communication, the sole Albanian-owned mobile operator, to sell its operations to the country’s two largest mobile operators for an undisclosed amount, the competition authority has unveiled after approving the transaction.
The country’s competition watchdog says the transaction brings no competition distortions and has tasked the electronic communications authority, AKEP, to make available frequency bands for the possible entry of new market operators.
Plus Communication, owned by some of the country’s richest businessmen, saw its annual income drop by 30 percent to about €16 million in 2016 and net profit drop by ten times to a mere 87.7 million lek (€ 644,000), according to annual reports filed with the country’s National Business Center.
Plus has already informed its subscribers about the termination of its mobile services.
‘We inform you that Plus Communication will discontinue the activity of providing mobile services to its subscribers on 1 January 2018 … To ensure continuity in mobile phone services, you are advised to switch to one of the mobile operators operating in the market. At the end of the above deadline, you will no longer have the option to keep and use the numbers you have available under the SIM cards issued and provided by Plus Communication,’ reads a statement on the company’s website.
Latest 2016 data shows leading Vodafone Albania operator, part of UK-based giant Vodafone Group, continues dominating the mobile market with 48.6 percent market share in terms of revenue, followed by Telekom Albania (former AMC), part of German Deutsche Telekom with 30.7 percent, Turkish-owned Albtelecom with about 12 percent, and Albanian-owned Plus Communication with 5 percent share.
Albania has some 3.4 million active mobile subscribers, the overwhelming 90 percent of whom are pre-paid ones.
