
The important change that has occurred in the mobile phone market, which as of this year already counts only 2 operators, has prompted AKEP to review the tariff policies, proposing their reduction through a formula based on costs.
AKEP has issued for public consultation the Analysis of the Cellular Telephony Market for Wholesale Markets of Call Termination in Mobile Telephony Networks where the two entities One Albania sh.a. and Vodafone Albania sh.a. are considered entrepreneurs with the Power of Sensitive to mobile networks.
Such a classification automatically gives the state regulator the right to intervene in the termination rates they use between each other, and which are ultimately reflected in package prices for Albanian mobile phone users.
Mobile Call Termination (MTR) is a wholesale service provided by the mobile operator to enable its network subscribers to receive calls. When the providers of call services from fixed or mobile networks enable their subscribers to send (make) calls to mobile network numbers of the Republic of Albania, they pay the operator that enables the termination of the call a wholesale fee for this service, which is called 'call termination fee in mobile networks'.
In 2018, AKEP determined this ceiling fee at the value of 1.11 ALL per minute, calculating it through a formula based on the average fees used by European regulators. What the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority proposes in the analysis is another formula, which is as close as possible to real costs.
More specifically, AKEP predicts that the termination rate will drop to 1.02 ALL/minute at the end of March 2024. After six months, at the end of September next year, AKEP predicts that the rate will drop to 0.89 ALL per minute, while in March 2025, it should not be higher than 0.75 minutes, or 32.4% lower than the rate that has been applied since 2018.