Tirana Times
TIRANA, March 8 – Increased competition and interventions by the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority have considerably lowered mobile tariffs during the past 3 years in Albania, but still remain above the average in the region, the AKEP head Pirro Xhixo said presenting the 2010 report in Parliament this week.
According to AKEP, the number of mobile subscribers in 2010 increased by 11 percent to 4.5 million for a population of around 3.5 million, a figure which shows more than 1/3 of subscribers have at least two SIM cards.
AKEP officials say the mobile phone market is now fully liberalized with the launch of fourth mobile operator, Albanian-owned Plus Communication at the end of 2010, and will bring increased competition and further lower tariffs this year also because of some measures by AKEP which is lowering mobile termination tariffs.
The AKEP ahead said mobile phone calls registered a significant 60 to 70 percent increase in 2010 because of lower tariffs. Meanwhile, the number of SMSs fell by 16 percent compared to 2009 because of the ongoing high tariffs criticized even by government.
Data show Albania’s mobile penetration rate climbed to 140 percent at the end 2010, which is 18 percent higher than the EU average.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Sali Berisha said his government would move to raise taxes for mobile phone companies and banks charging unjustifiable high fees and tariffs on Albanian consumers.
“The profit tax for each SMS will be 7 to 8 times higher than currently,” said Berisha, adding that phone calls would also undergo higher taxes.
Meanwhile, the internet market continued growing slowly because of the high tariffs with the number of households having broadband internet access growing to 110,000 or 13.7 percent of the total.
Starting from March 1 this year, termination tariffs for the four mobile operators in Albania, have gradually started reducing before being halved and become equal for all four companies by September 2015.
According to the AKEP decision aimed at providing cost oriented tariffs for operators with significant market power, termination tariffs, which are fees mobile phone companies charge other carriers to terminate calls on their networks, will lower to 8.85 lek/minute for the two biggest operators AMC and Vodafone Albania, down from 10.5 lek/min currently starting from March 1, 2011.
3G service
Four months after the granting of the first 3G permit and two months after the launch of the service by a single operator, government intends to liberalize the market offering licences even to other operators this year. Akep director Pirro Xhixho said that the Authority will soon start analyzing the market to offer other licences for the 3G service enabling faster internet access on mobile phones. The liberalization of the 3G market is also considered a commitment in the Stabilization and Association Agreement Albania has with the EU.
Currently, the 3G service is offered only by Vodafone Albania which offered 31.4 million euros to bid for the 15-year licence at an initial price tag of 12.5 million euros. In September 2010 the four mobile phone companies asked the government to issue four licences instead of one and at a cheaper price than the initial 12.5 million euros, saying it would avoid the creation of a monopoly.
Mobile number portability
Starting from spring 2011, Albanian mobile phone users will for the first time be offered the mobile number portability, a service enabling mobile phone users to retain their numbers when switching from one mobile operator to another. The agreement with Infosoft Systems, the winner of the international tender to provide the service which should have already been made available, was signed last December. Innovation and IT minister Genc Pollo said the number portability service will offer more opportunities to mobile users, increased competition for the current four operators and as a result better service and cheaper rates.
By spring 2011, mobile phone subscribers will be able to port their numbers to a new mobile operator within two days free of charge.
Earlier this year, NGOs expressed their concern over delays in the implementation of this service whose legal deadline expired in May 2009, delaying procedures to start offering number portability by one and a half years.
