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Voxox has announced that it would partner with Iliria Telecom to deliver cloud communications services in Albania.

Based in San Diego, CA (News - Alert), Voxox sells its unified cloud communications solutions in the wholesale market to service providers. The company was founded in 2006 as Telecentris and has a multiplatform app billed as ‘Skype (News - Alert) on steroids’, available as a free download on its site. Voice, video, instant messaging, text, social media, e-mail and fax are all supported with this app.

In addition to Albania, Voxox has also entered the western Africa cloud communications market. It has partnered with Telereliance of Ghana and Teleficient of Sierra Leone to provide service in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia.

Sterling Heights, MI-based Iliria Telecom sells VoIP telecom plans to end users and businesses. A large number of its customers are of Albanian and Kosovar ethnicity. The company makes it possible to use a regular phone with their service anywhere a high speed Internet connection is available and offers one month, three month and five month service plans. The company recently formed Iliria Telecom AB to start service in Albania.

Albania faced several challenges after the fall of the Iron Curtain in the early 1990s, many of them related to infrastructure. According to the CIA, 98 percent of electrical power is provided by hydroelectric sources and is not reliable. The roads and rail system were in poor repair and as a result, foreign investment was low. The government has responded with measures to improve the transportation and energy infrastructure with better roads, railways and additional energy sources, along with policies that encourage business growth.

The opportunity for growth has improved in Albania. The economy was heavily reliant on remittances and agriculture (much of it family owned) and subsistence farming. Without major changes to infrastructure and government policies conducive to business, the country would have continued to struggle, and ventures like the one with Voxox and Iliria would not have been possible.