Until
1990,
Albania was one of the world's most isolated and controlled countries, and installation and maintenance of a modern system of international and domestic telecommunications was precluded. Callers previously needed operator assistance even to make domestic long-distance calls. Albania's telephone density was the lowest in
Europe, at 1.4 units for every 100 inhabitants.
Tirana accounted for about 13,000 of the country's 42,000 direct lines;
Durrës, the main port city, ranked second with 2,000 lines; the rest were concentrated in
Shkodër,
Elbasan,
Vlorë,
Gjirokastër, and other towns. At one time, each village had a telephone but during the land redistribution of the early
1990s peasants knocked out service to about 1,000 villages by removing telephone wire for fencing. Most of Albania's telephones were obsolete, low-quality East European models, some dating from the
1940s; workers at a Tirana factory assembled a small number of telephones from Italian parts. In the early 1990s, Albania had only 240 microwave circuits to
Italy and 180 to
Greece carrying international calls. The Albanian telephone company had also installed two U-20 Italtel digital exchanges. The exchange in Tirana handled international, national, and local calls; the Durrës exchange handled only local calls. Two
United States firms handled direct-dial calls from the United States to Tirana. Currently the land lines are extremely overloaded and it is very difficult to receive a telephone number. As a result, the number of
mobile phones has skyrocketed in the bigger cities.
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Telephones - main lines in use:
255,000 (2003)
Telephones - mobile cellular:
1.1 million (2003)
Telephone system:
general assessment: despite new investment in fixed lines, the density of main lines remains the lowest in Europe with roughly 8 lines per 100 people; however, cellular telephone use is widespread and generally effective
domestic: offsetting the shortage of fixed line capacity, mobile phone service has been available since 1996; by 2003 two companies were providing mobile services at a greater density than some of Albania's Balkan neighbors
international: country code - 355; inadequate fixed main lines; adequate cellular connections; international traffic carried by microwave radio relay from the Tirana exchange to Italy and Greece (2003)
Radio broadcast stations:
AM 13, FM 4, shortwave 2 (2001)
Radios:
1 million (2001)
Television broadcast stations:
3 (plus 58 repeaters) (2001)
Televisions:
700,000 (2001)
Internet country code:
.al
Internet hosts:
455 (2004)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
10 (2001)
Internet users:
30,000 (2003)
More about Albania:
Introduction
Geography
People
Government
Economy
Transportation
Military
Transnational Issues
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