Telephone rates reduced by 20 percent

Tirana, June 19 – The Albanian Council of Ministers has decided to slash telephone rates by 20 percent. Yesterday, the Council of Ministers examined the new Methodology for Determining the Telephony Rates for the Substantial Market Power Operators, prepared by the Telecommunication Regulatory Entity. According to the new Methodology, the telecom operators, both cable and mobile telephones, will be obliged to reduce their telephony rates by 20 percent before the end of 2008. The Methodology stipulates that the telephone companies are going to reduce their service rates by 20 percent again in 2009. Prime Minister Sali Berisha praised the work done by the Telecommunication Regulatory Entity. “This is not an intervention in the market; on the contrary, it is a condition to respect the free and honest competition and not the cartel of entrepreneurs, because the cartel does not allow a free market”, Berisha said.
Currently, Albanian consumers are paying some of the highest mobile telephone rates in Europe. AMC and Vodafone, the two first mobile operators in the Albanian market, had virtually divided the market between them.(Tirana Times Staff)