Skip to main content

Rip Off

I'm always surprised at how quickly my phone runs out of credit. I shouldn't be; I know how much AMC charge. But somehow I still can't get used to the extortionate costs of using a mobile phone here.

So it comes as no surprise that AMC increased their profits by more than 20% last year to nearly EUR 50 million.

It was also no surprise that the company has been fined for its anti-competitive practices, and that the Telecommunications Authority in Albania has declared that both AMC and Vodafone are 'non-competing companies'.

Let's hope that the government has the courage to do something about these companies who are ripping off me, Albanian citizens and the whole country.

Comments

ak said…
You should dump the number that works on recharge-cards and take one with a contract from the company. Then, and only then, you will realize what real theft looks like. However bad it might be, on a recharge-card you can always control your costs. If you decided you spent too much, you just stop recharging, but with a contract-number it's like a hole in your pocket. I calculated that if I stopped using my cellphone and payed the same sum on a bank loan every month, I would be able to buy an apartment in 5-7 years. Nice, huh?
12:41 pm
Anonymous said…
I dont like the way AMC or Vodafone behave in the market but their profits increased mostly due to the governments actions of lowering commercial taxes. Hopefully a third mobile operator will enter the market but it's been taking them a while to receive their license. It's the mobile division of albtelecom, eaglemobile.
12:45 am
Ll.T. said…
Alwyn, the cellphone market issue in Albania is a political one (like many others....); both carriers are owned by greek interests and the government can (or is willing to do) very little against them. I don't anticipate any changes soon; "Eagle Mobile", a third carrier to be owned by Albtelekom has been in the works for a long time but the state hasn't yet chosen to throw it in the market.
7:42 am
MPH said…
The government is the problem, not the answer. They create the regulations that block competition. Then the politicians who control the regulation essentially need to be bribed for any new action to happen in the marketplace. Its a mess...

What about Skype?
6:59 am
olli said…
Hi MPH. I use skype for all my international calls out of here. Partly because it is so expensive otherwise, partly because the land lines are unreliable.

Regarding government, I partly agree with you. Bad government is the problem. Good government would be the solution.

The key issue is when government's regulate, whose interests are served? Their own, the interests of their paymasters in the business community, or the interests of consumers?

Corrupt governments tend to regulate in their own interests, unfortunately western governments regulate far too much in the interests of business - because businesses give them money, which is just another form of corruption.
12:22 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Albania and the Perils of the 21st Century

Another article on religion in Albania appeared yesterday. Patrick Poole, writing in the American Thinker , argues that Saudi funding for the construction of mosques and the training of imams is a threat to Albania, since these mosques and imams reflect the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam dominant in Saudi Arabia.
34 comments
Read more

Kamëz Part 3

For those who want a lengthy detailed report into the election there will, undoubtedly, be a range of them to chose from. In the meantime, here are my brief reflections on the last few weeks. At the heart of the problems around this election is the unwarranted influence of political parties on all aspects of the electoral process. Every institution responsible for organising and facilitating the election is under the control of political parties. The Electoral Code itself was heavily revised only days before the original date for the elections and only weeks before the actual date (Law 9676 13 January 2007). It was these revisions, specifically Article 181/2, that created the overly complicated identification requirements that caused so much confusion, and undoubtedly disenfranchised some voters. Let's be clear though: these revisions were not designed to protect the interests of the electorate. They were drafted primarily because the political parties do not trust each other. The ...
27 comments
Read more

Big in Albania

Ask me how much I knew about Albania before coming here and my list would be a short one: Enver Hoxha, bunkers and Sir Norman Wisdom. I have no idea when or how I acquired this extensive body of knowledge, but the association of Norman Wisdom with Albania was by far the most interesting part of it. I remember watching Norman Wisdom's old films on British television. My parents were fans of his wholesome, slapstick comedy, but apparently missed the ideological significance of Pitkin's relationship with Mr Grimsdale. Pitkin, the downtrodden and oppressed representative of the workers, triumphed every time over his capitalist oppressor, Mr Grimsdale - and he got the girl. It took a theorist of Hoxha's insight and profundity to discern this deeper political message. It always seemed tremendously unlikely, yet the story of Sir Norman's fame in Albania has been reported in worthy sources like the BBC , the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph . According to the Guardian, when Wi...
22 comments
Read more