TIRANA (Albania), February 19 (SeeNews) – The number of active mobile users in Albania fell by 3.1% year-on-year to 2.52 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, the country’s electronic and postal communication authority, AKEP, said.
Vodafone Albania was the market leader with 1.25 million active mobile users (down 1.6%), followed by Telekom Albania with 852,124 (down 5.7%) and Albtelecom with 417,061 (down 2.4%), AKEP said in a quarterly sector report.
In the fixed telephony segment, the number of active users fell 2.1% on the year to 242,791 in the October-December period.
Albtelecom was market leader with 176,653 telephone lines (down 0.3%), followed by ASC with 35,558 (down 11.9%), AbCom with 11,409 (down 2.0%), others with 10,978 (up 2.4%), Nisatel with 4,098 (unchanged), and Abissnet with 4,095 (up 1.1%).
The total number of SIM cards in circulation decreased by 18.5% to 3.38 million.
Earlier this week, Albania's competition authority said it has conditionally approved the sale of 100% of the country’s largest cable operator AbCom to Vodafone Albania. The competition authority will monitor the activity of Vodafone and AbCom for a year and obliges both companies to notify it of any changes in the services they offer.
In late October, Vodafone Albania said it agreed to acquire AbCom, with the transaction to be subject to customary regulatory clearances. The value of the deal was not disclosed.