Electronic communications market grew by 5.4% last year.

Based on the data reported to the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority (AKEP) by the market operators, the total income touched the value of 38.2 billion lek or 334 million euros.

The revenues of electronic communications operators increased for the second year in a row and reached the highest value since 2016.

Even for 2022, the segment of fixed communication services, mainly Internet and IPTV services, made the biggest contribution to the increase in income.

Of the approximately two billion ALL that was the increase in market revenue for 2022, 53% of the increase came from the segment of fixed services, while 47% from that of mobile services.

The market volume of services from fixed networks last year reached 12.77 billion ALL, with an increase of 8.9% compared to the previous year.

About 65% of fixed line service market revenues are generated by the 7 main market operators, led by Albtelecom with 26%, followed by Vodafone with 21%, ASC with 6%, Digicom with 5%, Abissnet with 4% and Nisatel with 3%.

Other operators, taken together, are estimated to own around 35% of this market's revenue.

The growth of the fixed services market mainly reflects the continuous expansion of the broadband Internet service market.

AKEP data show that the number of subscribers at the end of 2022 reached 582 thousand, an increase of 8.5% compared to the previous year. The pace of growth accelerated from the level of 5.4% that was recorded in 2021.

In 2022, four out of five Albanian families had access to the Internet with fixed lines, which, according to AKEP, places our country above the average of this indicator for the Western Balkans region.

AKEP estimates that in 2021 the penetration rate of broadband access from fixed networks was over 81% per family, increasing by 4 percentage points compared to 2021.

The mobile services market continues to dominate the market revenue structure, with more than 66% of the total.

However, the growth rates of this market for 2022 were significantly lower compared to the fixed services market and the weight of this segment in the total market is decreasing from the level of 69% of the previous year.

Operators reported revenues from electronic communications in the amount of ALL 25.4 billion, increasing by 3.7% compared to a year ago.

In the division of the market according to the turnover generated by the mobile segment, even throughout the year 2022, the operator with the largest market share in terms of revenue turns out to be Vodafone Albania with about 52%, followed by One Communications with 36% and Albtelecom with about 12%.

Since the beginning of this year, Albania has two mobile operators, after the merger between the companies ONE and Albtelecom under the umbrella of the Hungarian group 4iG.

AKEP data show that the total number of mobile subscribers or SIM cards at the end of 2022 reached about 3.7 million, in other words, each resident in Albania has about 1.35 SIM cards, which is higher than the European average of 1.21 SIM cards for residents.

Meanwhile, the number of active SIM cards (the number of cards used to carry out electronic communications during the last three months) reached about 2.8 million, an annual increase of 5.6%.

(Source: Monitor)