Mobile telephony competition

I refer to the article entitled Vodafone Criticises MCA Over Broadband Agreement (March 12) and would like to quote the following passage:

"Vodafone said the kind of agreement entered into by Datastream raises concerns of a competition nature - namely the foreclosing effect of a deal between a dominant player and other market players over the purchase of bandwidth. All this took place on the eve of the entry of a new supplier on the market.

"The Datastream agreement was signed shortly before Vodafone acquired a licence to sell international bandwidth."

Now people who know me are well aware that I am not enamoured of the Malta Communications Authority, to put it mildly, but the statement above coming from Vodafone is indeed rich.

Vodafone, at the time not only the dominant but the only supplier of mobile telephony, must have a very short and volatile memory if they do not recall the time before Maltacom obtained its licence in September 2000 to enable it to launch its Go Mobile service.

After having for about nine years fleeced its Maltese subscribers for all they were worth, so that only about 15,000 customers could afford the service, Vodafone tried to foreclose by suddenly lowering their fees in a weak attempt to retain their customers and lock Go Mobile out. It is also worth noting that at that time, I'm not sure if this is still the case, in order to unsubscribe from the Vodafone service you were required to pay them some two months fees or give them two months notice.

Moreover, in their panic, they tried to reduce their fees in breach of the contract they had with Maltacom as the successor of Telemalta, that is, requests to the regulator to alter the fee structure could not be made unilaterally but required the consent of both parties.

Maltacom at the time decided not to sue Vodafone for breach of contract as, in spite of their bravado about their ability to face competition, we were convinced that the team at Go Mobile would give them a good run for their money. In fact, Go Mobile successfully penetrated the market and to an extent far beyond both our and Vodafone's expectations.

Vodafone should examine their history and their conscience before crying foul.