Internet dominant, mobile service usage improved in second quarter

2025-11-25 08:46:00, Aktualitet CNA

The use of mobile services showed a significant improvement in the second quarter of this year. The Internet is becoming increasingly dominant in the way Albanians use their mobile devices, but nevertheless, an increase in call traffic was also observed in the second quarter of this year.

According to data from the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority (AKEP), total internet traffic from mobile networks increased by 13.2% compared to the second quarter of last year. Average internet consumption per user reached 9.84 GB (gigabytes) of internet per month, an increase of 11.2% compared to the same period a year ago.

In addition to using the internet for information, work or entertainment purposes, calls and text messages are also increasingly being sent through applications, such as WhatsApp, gradually reducing the use of traditional services. This is making the transmission capacities of the internet increasingly important in the provision of mobile services.

However, call traffic halted the downward trend that had been characteristic for several years.

Outgoing call traffic increased by 9% compared to the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, the number of text messages decreased by 1.9% year-on-year.

Each subscriber used their mobile phone for an average of 143 minutes per month, 10.5% more compared to the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, the number of written messages was 13 per user per month, with a slight decrease of 0.6% compared to the same period a year ago.

The number of mobile service users (actually measured as the number of SIM cards or active mobile numbers) fell again in the second quarter of the year, by 1.1% compared to a year earlier.

The decline in the number of mobile phone users also appears to be a long-term trend. Over the course of a decade, the number of active mobile phone users has fallen by almost 30%.

This can be explained by internal market factors, but perhaps also by demographic factors.

The number of mobile operators has been reduced from four to two, while it is increasingly rare for a user to have more than one mobile number. This trend was quite widespread until about a decade ago, before the price differentiation for on-net and off-net calls was banned.

Another factor that may have influenced the number of users in recent years is the agreement to abolish roaming fees in the Western Balkan countries. Since a good part of foreign visitors to Albania come from neighboring countries, they no longer need to use Albanian numbers for their communication while they are in Albania. Always in the long term, negative demographic trends and population shrinkage may also partially explain the decline in the number of active users./ Monitor Magazine