What is "albtelecom"

ALBtelecom SH. a. (a shortening of Albanian Telecom - “Telekomi Shqiptar”) was established as Albania's state company that provided telecommunications services through a fixed network. On 5 December 1912 the Provisional Government led by Ismail Qemali established the Ministry of Post Telegraph Telephones, where ALBtelecom existed only as a government office. It is the largest fixed line telephone company in the country, currently covering with Optical Fiber Backbone Network the entire territory of Albanian cities (Albania's population is 3.2 million).

It was privatized on 1 October 2007 (following a privatization process which started in 2000), with 76% of its shares sold by the Albanian government to a consortium of two Turkish companies, Çalık Holding and Türk Telekom, with Calik taking 80% of the consortium's stake.

In May 1996 ALBtelecom created Albanian Mobile Communications (Now Telekom Albania) and in March 2008 created another mobile telephony company called Eagle Mobile, which gained a 13% market share within a year.