Mobile phone use in Malta still below EU average

Although the public perception in Malta is that mobile phone penetration is high, it is lower than the average in the European Union.

According to statistics issued by Eurostat, the EU's statistical arm, there were 73 mobile phone lines for every 100 Maltese inhabitants in 2003 - almost seven per cent below the EU average. Still, it is a big jump from 1995, when the number of mobile phone lines per 100 inhabitants in Malta was a mere 2.3.

Eurostat said mobile telephony has experienced enormous growth since 1995 all over the EU. In the period 1995-2003, the number of mobile telephone subscriptions grew by 42 per cent each year on average among the 25 member states.

In 2003, there were over 364 million subscriptions in the EU25 compared to only 22 million in 1995, meaning there were an average of 80 subscriptions to mobile phones per 100 inhabitants in the EU25 in 2003 compared to only five in 1995.

The highest number of mobile phone subscriptions per inhabitant is in Luxembourg (120 per 100 inhabitants), Sweden (98), Italy (96) and the Czech Republic (95).

It should be noted that subscriptions include active pre-paid cards and that one person may have more than one subscription. Therefore, the number of subscriptions can be higher than the population. The lowest numbers of mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants were recorded in Poland (46), Latvia (52) and Lithuania (62).

The number of mobile subscriptions rose by 8.6 per cent in the EU25 in 2003 compared to 2002. All member states registered increases, ranging from around five per cent in Malta, Finland, and Austria to more than 30 per cent in Latvia, Cyprus and Lithuania.

Eurostat said that growth was expected to slow down in those member states having the highest subscription densities.

When it comes to fixed telephone lines, there are large differences in their density among member states.

Malta is one of the countries with the highest number of fixed telephone lines per capita, with an average even higher than that of the EU. In 2003, the number in Malta amounted to 53.4 lines per 100 inhabitants, three percentage points over the EU25 average of 50.

The density varied from 24 lines per 100 inhabitants in Lithuania and Slovakia and 28 in Latvia to 67 lines per 100 inhabitants in Denmark, 66 in Germany and 62 in Cyprus and The Netherlands.

On average, in the EU25 the number of lines went down slightly from 2002, by 0.3 per cent, which indicates that people are preferring mobile to fixed telephony.