Green Paper on next-generation connectivity

A Green Paper on a "next-generation access infrastructure" was launched yesterday by Communications Minister Austin Gatt.

The paper is a collection of ideas on where the country has to go in connectivity. In a foreword to the Green Paper, Dr Gatt said that delivering a next-generation infrastructure was one of the seven pillars of the Smart Island strategy.

"Our ambitious mission is to be the country of the future, where we realise to the fullest extent the potential of new technologies.

"Our size helps in deploying nationwide projects as we manage to bring together all major stakeholders to discuss and partner on initiatives which have a tangible improvement in the way we communicate, attract investment and provide services."

The minister recalled how, at the end of the 1980s, the government decided to invest in networks. This was a main reason why investment had been attracted to Malta. For more investment, the country had to continue investing in the sector.

The next step, he said, was fibre connectivity, which was being touted as being a "no-limits" technology. He pointed out that YouTube used as much broadband as the whole internet did in 2000.

Malta, Dr Gatt said, was aiming to be one of the top 10 countries offering a way of life based on the internet. Broadband quality in homes had to improve drastically. The greater the integration of voice, data and video, the bigger the need for fibre optic cables.

Germany already had networks based on fibre optic and the problem whether or not the government should intervene with subsidies had already cropped up. The debate at European level was on whether subsidies would result in market distortion.

For Malta, a country on the periphery of Europe, having fibre connectivity was more important.

The aim of the Green Paper, Dr Gatt said, was to launch a debate to see which were the best routes the country should take for fibre connectivity. The country had to be fed completely on fibre optic and the main questions were what the government's role should be and where would the investment be coming from. Finding the answers, he said, was not easy.

He hoped the paper would stimulate debate because this was a subject that could affect the country's cultural and social development for the next 20 years.

The Green Paper can be accessed at www.mitc.gov.mt.