Maltacom accused of holding up Melita's telephone service

Maltacom and its subsidiary Mobisle Communications Ltd are excluding Melita Cable from the fixed telephony market by refusing to sign an "interconnect agreement", Melita claimed in a judicial protest filed in court yesterday.

This agreement, already discussed and drafted, would allow a subscriber of Melita's fixed telephony to contact, and be contacted by a Maltacom and Mobisle subscriber.

In the protest, filed against Maltacom and Mobisle in the First Hall of the Civil Court, Melita called on the two companies to sign the agreement, under the fair conditions that had already been agreed upon, within three days and held them liable in any damages suffered.

Speaking to The Times, Melita CEO Philip Micallef said Melita only wanted to go ahead with its plans, of which Maltacom and Mobisle were aware.

"We are currently stuck and would like this to be concluded. The interconnect agreement is ready and just waiting to be signed.

"At the end of the day this is not a fight, but it's business... It is unfortunate that all this is hindering people from possibly paying less for the service," he said.

In the protest Melita said it was legally authorised to operate as a public communications' network and provide a publicly available telephone service.

The company had finalised plans to offer fixed line telephony services to consumers. But, in order to offer this service, Melita first had to conclude the interconnect agreement.

This agreement would allow subscribers of Melita's fixed telephony to phone a subscriber of Maltacom's fixed telephony and Mobisle's mobile service, and vice versa. Therefore, in order for Melita to offer an effective fixed telephony service and compete fairly, it was essential that Maltacom and Mobisle signed the agreement - as they were obliged by law.

Yet, despite several meetings that started in February, Maltacom and Mobisle refused to sign, Melita claimed. This was making it impossible for Melita to offer its service and enter the market.

The two companies even refused to sign when the Malta Communications' Authority intervened.

Melita added that it was known that Maltacom dominated the fixed telephony market while Mobisle held a dominant position on the mobile telephony market.

Their refusing to sign the agreement constituted an abuse of dominance in terms of the Competition Act and a European Community Treaty.

They were excluding Melita from the fixed telephony market and effectively stopping Melita from providing this service to the consumer.

This was seriously and evidently detrimental to competition in the local market.

Moreover, having invested largely in the fixed telephony project, this situation had caused, and was still causing, substantial damaged to Melita, the company said.

It called on the two companies to sign the interconnect agreement within three days and held them liable in damages.

Lawyers Henri Mizzi and Adrian Mallia signed the protest.