Government under pressure from Greeks and Turks

Albanian government is under heavy pressure both from Greeks and Turks for the privatization of Albtelecom, the fixed lines telecommunication company, ABC daily reported recently.

According to the newspaper the government is trying to find a mid-way between the Turkish company Calik Enerji, which would like to see through its contract for the privatization of Albtelecom, and on the other side the Greeks, who would like to protect their position in Albanian mobile telecommunication market.

Albtelecom owns the third GSM license and the Turks are very much interested to enter not only the fixed line market, but also the lucrative mobile one as well. The current agreement, under negotiations, permits to the Turks to use the current mobile networks as the first step in mobile market, while, on the other side, the government is under pressure from the existing operators in order to omit this clause in the agreement.

AMC’s CEO, Stefanos Octapodas, complained last year that the new operator would be granted a free license, equal to the one for which his company paid USD 85.6 million in 2000. The Albania government granted a mobile license to Albtelecom aiming to make it even more attractive to foreign investors. However, when the new Eagle Mobile operator was created, it did never begin to offer its services due to lack of political will to invest in the new network.

Just last week, the Telecommunications Authority extended for the third time the license for Eagle Mobile.

Last Saturday, a NGO connected with the government asked publicly for the third license not to be renewed, and for the government to issue a forth mobile operator license. ABC daily interpreted this as a signal from the government, which aims to escape the Greek pressure by selling Albtelecom without the third license. Meanwhile, negotiations with Calik Enerji continue.