Albania’s competition authority probes three mobile operators

Albania’s competition authority probes three mobile operators
By bne IntelliNews May 25, 2017

Albania's competition authority has launched a preliminary investigation against three mobile operators for changing their tariffs for pre-paid mobile phone customers. According to the law, the companies are suspected of abusing their dominant position, but the investigation hasn't named them.

Albania has four mobile operators: Vodafone Albania, Telekom Albania, Albtelecom Mobile and the smallest Plus Communication. Pre-paid customers make up around 90% of all mobile users in the market.

“The monitoring has shown that some of the companies that offer services in this market have changed packages for pre-paid customers,” the competition authority said in a statement on May 23.

The report from the preliminary investigation is expected to be issued within three months.

Mobile phone usage is high in Albania, which has a population of 2.9mn, as according to Albania’s telecom regulator (AKEP), the number of SIM cards totalled 5.3mn at end-2016 up by 7.8% from a year earlier.

The number of active mobile users fell by 2.1% y/y to 3.4mn at the end of 2016. The number of active mobile users of broadband services from mobile networks (3G/4G) was about 1.7mn, which represents a 30% increase compared to 2015.

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