Albania coverage

What the Albania numbers mean

Two numbers matter and only one of them is the one every seller quotes. The typical speed, 54 Mbps, tells you what a good moment looks like.

The tenth percentile, 13 Mbps, is the one that matters. It is the speed in the worst tenth of the day, when the cell above the station is full and everybody around you is on it too. A country with a high median and a low floor is a country that works beautifully right up until the moment you actually need it.

If the trip depends on video calls or tethering, plan around the busy figure rather than the typical one.

What happens in Albania when the network is busy

Congestion is not a fault, it is a Tuesday evening. The question is what your eSIM can do about it, and for most travel eSIMs the answer is nothing: one wholesale agreement per country, one network, and no way out except buying a second eSIM from somebody else while standing in the street.

Here, Orbislo traffic runs over Vodafone and One. When the network you are on degrades we move you to another one, mid trip, without you asking, and tell you afterwards rather than interrupting you at the time.

Mobile operators in Albania

• Vodafone Albania: AKEP's 2025 figures give Vodafone Albania 48 percent of active SIM cards but 56 percent of mobile broadband users, 54 percent of data volume and 58 percent of mobile revenue, with about 1.17 million mobile broadband subscribers. It reports 4G over about 97 percent of the territory and about 100 percent of the population.
• One Albania: One Albania was created when Albtelecom merged with One Telecommunications, leaving Albania with two mobile networks. In 2025 it held 52 percent of active SIM cards and about 906,000 mobile broadband subscribers, with 4G over about 96 percent of the territory and 99 percent of the population, and 3G reaching about 99 percent of people.
• Market size: Albania's SIM card count fell from about 3.86 million in 2023 to about 3.15 million in 2025, while mobile data traffic rose more than 16 percent in 2025 to about 260 million GB. About 2.1 million subscribers, over 88 percent of residents, used mobile internet.
• Spectrum: Both operators hold AKEP individual authorisations in the 800, 900, 1800, 2100 and 2600 MHz bands and at 3400 to 3800 MHz. Vodafone's 2100 MHz block of 2 x 15 MHz, granted in 2010, was valid until the end of 2025, and Vodafone applied to renew it in October 2025.

Older networks in Albania

• Vodafone Albania began switching off 3G in 2025. AKEP reports it had finished in Korçë and Dibër counties and parts of Fier and Elbasan, with 30.1 percent of its 3G sites off, and planned to complete the shutdown nationwide in the first half of 2026.
• Vodafone Albania says phones or SIM cards that only support 3G lose internet access on its network from the start of May 2026 but can still make calls and send SMS. It is keeping 2G running, mainly because many IoT devices depend on it.
• Before each phase of its 3G shutdown, Vodafone Albania added 2G capacity and tuned its LTE network, including SRVCC handover for VoLTE calls and circuit switched fallback, and contacted customers identified with old non-USIM cards or 3G-only phones.
• One Albania plans to start its 3G shutdown in October 2026 by removing its 2100 MHz 3G layers, keeping 3G only at 900 MHz, then to switch 3G off region by region across six regions from September 2027, finishing by the end of 2027. Phones without VoLTE will fall back to 2G for calls.

5G in Albania

• AKEP's board awarded 3.5 GHz spectrum on 25 November 2024 after an open public tender: One Albania received 120 MHz at 3420 to 3540 MHz and Vodafone Albania 120 MHz at 3680 to 3800 MHz, both unpaired. The winners must negotiate access to their radio capacity with virtual operators.
• The 3.5 GHz licences require 5G coverage of 55 percent of the population by the end of 2027 and 85 percent by the end of 2030. Ports, airports, the Tirana to Durrës industrial zone and Tirana's hospital centres were due by the end of 2025, and every Albanian city by the end of 2028.
• One Albania installed 64 new 3.4 to 3.6 GHz sites in 2025, covering 46.6 percent of the population and 15.7 percent of the territory on that band, and over 70 percent of people once its other bands are counted. Kukës and Vlorë airports were not yet covered because they are not operating.
• Vodafone Albania installed 130 new 3.5 GHz sites in 2025, covering 42.2 percent of the population and 15.3 percent of the territory on that band. It also runs 5G on 1800 MHz in several major cities, and its combined 5G population coverage exceeds 60 percent.
• The 700 MHz band is still used by television broadcasters. AKEP says freeing it would allow faster 5G coverage of the whole country, and that broadcasters cause interference to 5G operators in border areas, including with Greece, Italy and Croatia.
• To free the 700 MHz band, a working group set up by order of the Prime Minister in April 2026 has prepared a draft law requiring the Audiovisual Media Authority to complete the broadcasters' migration within six months of the law entering into force.

Network notes for Albania

• Some national roads still have gaps. In 2025 Vodafone Albania switched on sites covering the Murriz tunnel, Skuraj Rep, Skërfica, Dedaj and Bradashesh, but the Skërfica tunnel still awaited a site with a power supply problem, and the Qukës to Qafë Plloçë road was only partly covered.
• For tourist areas, Vodafone Albania activated 12 permanent and 8 temporary sites on the coast and in the mountains in 2025, while One Albania built 23 new macro and small cell sites serving new roads, tourist spots and the coastline and upgraded LTE capacity at 168 sites.
• One Albania plans new sites from 2026 to 2029 on the coast at Palasë, Sarandë and Cape Rodon, in the mountains at Grykë Nokë and Lurë, and along roads including Lumi i Vlorës to Qeparo, the Vlorë to Orikum bypass, the Arbër road and Kardhiq to Delvinë.