Fixed-line losses are mobile phone gains

Text messaging has reached an all-time high and mobile phone originating traffic has shot up, as fixed-line communication continues its steady descent, a new report has shown.

Year-on-year, fixed line-originating traffic dropped by 31 million minutes, equivalent to nearly 10 per cent.

On the other hand, mobile-originating traffic increased by over 15 million minutes, or 17 per cent.

The Malta Communications Authority's Electronic Communications Market Review - September 2006 to March 2007 - reflects a thriving electronics industry even if its financial output has taken a dive.

By the end of the period under review, the mobile phone penetration rate stood at 85 per cent.

SMS usage grew by over 12 million messages, or 5.6 per cent, over the year.

The all-time high SMS usage is down due to several factors including the high price difference between SMS and voice tariffs, the myriad promotional offers featuring texts in bulk and the growth in the use of web portal text messaging services.

Despite the falling cost of MMS-enabled handsets and their uptake, MMS usage is still ebbing. In fact, over the two quarters being reviewed, MMS usage dropped marginally by a 1.1 per cent.

Roaming voice origination increased by 11 per cent over the comparable period in 2005/2006.

However, year-on-year, the output of the industry fell by Lm6.1 million in nominal terms and by almost Lm5.8 million in real terms.

The MCA said this might be a result of falling prices rather than falling output.

A slide of Lm6.4 million in nominal terms or Lm5.8 million in real terms was registered in the electronic communications services sector.

The communications industry's contribution to GDP, in nominal and real terms respectively, has dipped by 0.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent.

This decrease is underpinned by an amalgamation of factors, according to the report. One of them is the higher take-up of e-mail, free-to-use VoIP applications and other substitute services that are being introduced as a result of increasing competition.

The communications industry employed over 2,500 full-time equivalent employees, 1,879 of whom were in the electronic communications sector.

Nominal expenditure by private households on electronic communications services has grown in absolute values. For the last one-year period reviewed, the year-on-year increase amounted to Lm2.8 million, or 3.8 per cent.

Following the introduction of Melita Cable's VoIP Hello service, which offered on-net calls for free, VoIP traffic spiked in the first quarter of last year.

The year-on-year growth of VoIP traffic amounted to 15 per cent.

As at the end of the period being reviewed, Ten21 traffic accounted for 67 per cent of total VoIP traffic registered.

The cable and analogue TV subscription-rate-to-household ratio stood at 86.7 per cent, up from 84.5 per cent.