Vodafone Albania Subscribers reach 919,000

TIRANA, Feb.2- Vodafone Albania had 919,000 subscribers at the end of December last year. The Albanian unit of the British telecommunications giant Vodafone announced that the customer base was broadened by 22.9 percent compared to last year. Vodafone posted in its website a report about the key performance indicators for the third quarter of the fiscal 2006. The report said that 96.7 percent of the customers were using prepaid services. Data from the same report show that Vodafone Albania added a total 51,000 subscribers in the third quarter of its 2006 fiscal year. This means a 5.9 percent rise in its customer base compared to the end of the year’s second quarter. Monthly revenue per user in Albania reached 2,086 leks ($21.7/16.7 euro) in the quarter to December, compared to 2,311 leks in the previous quarter and to 2,259 leks in the year-ago quarter. Total voice minutes in the quarter through December totaled 160 million, compared to 166 million minutes in the quarter through September and to 141 million minutes in the corresponding period the previous year. The company will publish definitive final data upon the end of the 2006 fiscal year which is on March 31, 2007.Vodafone Albania started operating in 2001, as the second mobile operator in Albania. The first mobile services provider on the Albanian market was AMC. Vodafone Albania is owned by Vodafone-Panafon, a consortium of Vodafone International Holding and Greek telecommunication company Panafon. It had an estimated 49.1 percent share in the domestic mobile market at the end of September, when there were around 1.769 million wireless users in Albania out of 3.13 million total inhabitants.