Europe

The ALBtelecom Company which was created in 1912 right after the Independence of Albania and was licensed to provide fixed telephony and internet services by the Entity of Telecommunications Regulation (ERT) in 1992 continues to be an indispensable part and the first choice of the Albanians when it comes to communication. ALBtelecom is owned by CETEL a.s. in Ankara (76 percent of the shares) and by the Albanian Government and other shareholders (24 percent). CETEL a.s. itself is owned by one of the biggest companies in Turkey Calik Group with 80 percent of the shares and by Turk Telekom with 20 per cent of the shares turning this into a successful entrepreneurship. The Albanian telecommunication giant offers qualitative communication through the fixed telephony the ADSL the Dedicated Internet Access the Dial-up the Intranet the ISDN service the prepaid cards etc. By the end of 2013 ALBtelecom had 210 thousand subscribers of the PSTN service (fixed telephony) and 71 thousand subscribers of the Internet service. By the end of 2012 the company had invested about €150 million and continues to invest in the replacement or expansion of the network in the increase of capacities across the country in the preparation of infrastructure in the latest technology services as well as in the improvement of service infrastructure etc. ALBtelecom has about 1400 employees all around Albania. Its shop network which continues to expand counts 150 shops. The ALBtelecom Fiber Optic Backbone network stretches in all the cities of Albania. The entire ALBtelecom fiber optic transmission equipment is connected to Ring Topology to ensure and enable data transmission for broadband services (telephony Internet Data IPTV xDSL etc.) Ring Topology serves to transmit data in two different directions. If there is a physical injury to an FO nod then the data that is being transmitted is wrapped back onto the complementary ring to reach the destination. The fibre optic network has already reached 3000 km across the country with 600 km of international network that enables connection with the neighbouring countries. In 2007 when the company was privatized there were only 500 km of optical fibre.