High-tech mobile phone facility to be set up in Malta

An international firm at the cutting edge of mobile telephony will be setting up a high-tech facility in Malta, attracted by the country's Smart Island strategy.

The announcement was made yesterday by the Minister for Investment, Industry and Information Technology Austin Gatt.

The firm, Aspider, is a leading Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) serving clients in Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa. MVNEs are the technology platform providers of MVNOs, which are considered to be the next step in mobile telephony, providing virtual mobile services across distances.

The trend has picked up in countries like the Benelux, the UK and Scandinavia where between 20 and 30 per cent of mobile customers use MVNOs for their mobile telephony needs.

Aspider Malta will mostly be servicing international customers. It estimates reaching out to one million overseas mobile customers from its service on the island. Its Malta facility will be employing abut 50 people ranging from engineers and system architects to call centre representatives.

Luis Carrera, of Aspider, spoke of Malta's Smart Island strategy as a main motivation for the relocation of their business to Malta.

"The government of Malta is clear about the direction it wants to follow in the development of ICTs in Malta and has developed a thought-through programme of initiatives that fits in with Aspider's own ambitions and strategy for the future," he said.

Dr Gatt pointed out that Aspider's announcement is in line with the government's vision for Malta.

He said Aspider marks a first in the attraction of the highest-end IT operators to Malta. The investment not only aims to create jobs here but also to increasingly put Malta on the map in terms of becoming an ICT destination.

Such investments will remain here and continue to increase if there is a government that shares their vision and is ahead of world trends in its ICT policies, Dr Gatt said.