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The number of users of mobile services, in significant decline

2024-06-07 07:43:00, Aktualitet CNA
The number of users of mobile services, in significant decline
Illustrative photo

The number of active users of mobile services fell significantly in the quarter of this year.

According to data from the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority (AKEP), at the end of March the number of active users of these services reached 2.52 million, down 3.5% compared to the end of 2023 and 8.9% compared to the same period of the previous year.

The decline even marks the number of broadband Internet users from mobile networks. The number of users fell to 2.02 million, a decrease of 2.8% from the beginning of the year and 5.1% compared to the same period a year ago.

The decline in the number of active users can be explained by a number of factors. Negative demographic trends and the shrinking population can explain, in a longer-term comparison horizon, the decline in the number of active users. For example, compared to the same period of 2017, the number of active users has decreased by more than 27%.

However, on the other hand, temporarily this effect must have been compensated by the strong growth of inbound tourism. Foreign tourists generally use Albanian SIM cards during their stay in Albania.

During quarter III 2023 the number of active users of mobile services marked a strong increase from 2.19 million to 2.56 million. But, in the IV quarter of 2023, the number of active subscribers immediately marked a sharp drop to 2.08 million, which implies that tourism has a significant impact on the number of active mobile phone users.

However, looking at the annual increase in the number of foreign tourists that official statistics report, the decline in the number of active users on an annual basis seems difficult to explain. One of the other reasons could be the gradual amortization of the effect of the merger between One and Albtelecom operators.

On the other hand, the consumption figures of mobile services continue to show a long-term trend of the concentration of these services on the Internet and the decline of voice call and text message services.

For the first quarter of the year, data (internet) traffic increased by 25.1% compared to a year ago, while average monthly data usage per user increased by 31.8%.

On the other hand, the total number of outgoing phone calls fell by 2%, while the number of text messages shrank by 6.3%. These figures show that communication is also increasingly shifting to OTT, Internet-based applications.

This year, it is expected that Albanian mobile communications operators will offer 5G technology services for the first time.

In April, AKEP closed the public consultation procedure for granting the rights to use frequencies in the 3.5 GHz band, the first to be used for the provision of 5G mobile communication technology in Albania. Now it is expected that AKEP will announce the tender for putting these frequencies into use.

According to AKEP, the generation of 5G mobile systems increases the data speed of 4G networks by more than 10 times, improving the techniques of using frequencies./Monitor

 





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