TIRANA (Albania), March 2 (SeeNews) – The number of active mobile users in Albania increased by 3.9% year-on-year to 3.63 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, the country’s electronic and postal communication authority, AKEP, said.
Vodafone Albania was the market leader with 1.73 million active mobile users (-0.2%), followed by Telekom Albania with 1.23 million (+8.9%), Albtelecom with 458,656 (+3.0%) and Plus Communication with 205,790 (+13.7%).
In the fixed telephony segment, the number of active users edged down 0.7% on the year to 247,000 in the October-December period.
Albtelecom was market leader with 171,516 lines (-3.0%), followed by ASC with 42,829 (+13.4%), Abcom with 15,282 (+9.6%), others with 14,913 (-6.1%), and Nisatel with 2,470 (-42.6%).
The total number of SIM cards in circulation increased by 5.3% to 5.56 million in the three months through December.
Under an agreement made public by the competition authority in late November, Vodafone and Telekom currently operate 50% of the frequencies of their troubled peer Plus Communications.
Plus Communication earlier demanded the transfer of frequencies, saying it is facing financial difficulties which make it impossible for the company to continue offering services.
Albania’s telecommunications industry generates around 40 billion leks ($369 million/302 million euro) of revenue, or about 3% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
(1 euro = 131.144 leks)