Government under pressure from Greeks and Turks
Uncategorized Monday, March 19th, 2007Albanian government is under heavy pressure both from Greeks and Turks for the
privatization of Albtelecom, the fixed lines telecommunication company, ABC
daily reported recently.
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.
Short URL: http://www.albanianeconomy.com/news/?p=270
Posted by
on Mar 19 2007. Filed under Uncategorized.
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