ALBtelecom Mobile, formerly known as ''Eagle Mobile'', is a

mobile communication Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Telephony is supposed to specifically point to a voice-only service or connection, though sometimes the l ...

company that operates in

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

. Back in March 2008, it was first founded as a subsidiary of ALBtelecom, which had been privatized in October 2007, with a majority of shares sold by the Albanian government to a consortium of two Turkish companies; Calik Holding and

Türk Telekom Türk Telekom is a state-owned Turkish telecommunications company. Türk Telekom was separated from Turkish Post (PTT) in 1995. Türk Telekom Group provides integrated telecommunication services for PSTN, GSM, and wide-band Internet. The Türk ...

. Calik possesses 80% of the company and

the remaining 20%.

Background

Eagle Mobile is a former brand name of ALBtelecom based in

and, starting from August 2017, it became known as ALBtelecom Mobile. The former, Eagle Mobile, entered as the 3rd operator of mobile telephony in Albania on 12 March 2008. The operator was established on October 23, 2003, from the Albanian government as an integral part of ALBtelecom, a fixed telephony operator in Albania. The privatization started in 2005 and was finalised on September 28, 2007, when one of the biggest companies in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, Çalik Group, purchased 76% of the shares along with its partner

. The other 24% of the shares belong to the

Albanian government Albania is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic, where the President of Albania is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Albania the head of government in a multi-party system. The executive power is exercised by the Government a ...

Privatisation

The agreement was signed from the Minister of Economy, Trade and Energy, Genc Ruli and the President of Çalik Holding, Ahmet Çalik, in Tirana. In March 2008, the prime ministers of Albania and Turkey, Sali Berisha and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan greeted each other upon a symbolic "ALO" which opened officially the communication of Eagle Mobile, the company which carried the symbol of Albania and Albanians, the Eagle. Eagle Mobile entered the Albanian market of telecommunication on March 12, 2008. In a very short period of 6 months, Eagle Mobile covered the entire territory of the country by exceeding its speed and predictions for network set up. On December 31, 2008, the company attained coverage by 97% of the population of the country and 90.7% of the territory of the country and provided services to the whole Albania. ALBtelecom and Eagle invested 150 million Euro, providing job possibilities to around 1000 Albanian professionals, the majority of them women. With the network made by more than 377 base stations, Eagle has the best coverage with 92.5 percent of the territory and 98.5 percent of population. Back in 2013, Eagle had more than 1,470,000 subscribers, and 150 shops across Albania. The CEO of ALBtelecom Mobile is Tahsin Yilmaz. The display name of ALBtelecom is: ALBtelecom, but some phones might display the old name which was EAGLE AL.

Services

ALBtelecom Mobile (former Eagle) is the third operator in Albania to provide 3G technology. In February 2012 a tender for the third 3G license in Albania where the minimum acceptable price was

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

12.5 million failed after Eagle mobile offered €3.55 million and Plus offered €3.55 million. Another tender was held in October of the same year. This time it was for two 3G licenses and the starting bid was 4 million euros. Eagle Mobile offered 4.355 million Euros while Plus only 1, making Eagle the only one to acquire the 3G license. The first 3G license was won by Vodafone Albania, bidding 31.4 million Euros and the second one by AMC after a 15.1 million Euros bid. In the beginning of 2013 Eagle Mobile launched its first 3G network, with coverage initially available in the region of Tirana, Fushëkruja and Airport.

Market share

had, in 2012, 5.3 million subscribers (187% penetration rate), out of which there were 3.2 million active users (114% penetration rate). An active user is the number of users that communicated in the last three months. The regulatory authority for telecommunication in Albania is the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority.

References

External links