2010 through the crystal ball

Malta's digital TV switchover, the future of SmartCity Malta, and the transposition of the new EU telecoms legislation should be the three main events related to technology in Malta in 2010.

History will be made at the very end of this year. On midnight of December 31 the analogue TV signals will be switched off forever, and local TV will only be available in digital format. A national campaign is expected throughout the year to encourage those still watching analogue TV, estimated to be around 11 per cent of Maltese households, to get the necessary digital set-top box or digital-ready TV set in time.

A call for expressions of interest will be issued early in the year for local TV stations that satisfy so-called "general interest objectives" to apply for a frequency and be able to broadcast in digital format on a national scale. PBS is entrusted with setting up this free-to-air network, and industry sources told i-Tech that PBS has already approached Go, which operates its digital terrestrial TV service, to take care of the technical infrastructure of the new free-to-air network.

Another event is set to change the local TV scene during 2010. Go has acquired the rights to air live English Premier League football and Italian Serie A football, previously in the hands of Melita. This is expected to shake the market as many football viewers will be compelled to switch to Go to continue enjoying the matches. Satellite viewing could also witness an increase.

In 2010 we should be hearing a lot about SmartCity Malta, maybe not for the reasons we had hoped for until some time ago. The international economic crisis hit Dubai hard in 2009 and this left its mark on the Ricasoli project which is being implemented by Dubai-based Tecom Investments.

In late 2008 Mepa approved the outline development permit for the office, residential, commercial, retail and public spaces while it also approved the full development permit for the state-of-the-art ICT and media building SCM01 which was meant to offer 12,018 square metres of top-tier office space as from 2010. However, the progress, on the Ricasoli constructions site has been slow last year and the fact that the top Maltese management of SmartCity Malta, including CEO Claudio Grech, left the company in 2009, fuelled speculation on the future of the project which was sold to the public as the most important direct foreign investment in Malta ever.

If, however, everything moves according to plan, SCM01 should welcome the first tenants this year. These could be major international companies, and we would not be surprised if IBM or Microsoft would be among the first to move in.

Speaking of IBM, Big Blue should be very busy this year implementing the €70 million smartgrid project for Maltese utilities. IBM did brag about this project after the contract was signed last February and now it has to start to deliver what it sees as a prototype for the rest of the world. The new smart meters should be rolled out across the Maltese islands this year, providing better resource management by Enemalta and more savings to households.

The third major development is not expected to be in the public eye like the digital TV switchover, SmartCity Malta or the smartgrid. Yet, it will have a profound effect on local communication services in the long run as the Maltese government works on the transposition of the new EU telecoms framework onto Maltese legislation this year, so that is comes into force in early 2011.

The new package approved by the European Parliament late last year is set to strengthen the rights of phone and internet users while boosting competition in the EU.

i-Tech described the year 2009 as the year of wireless personal communication. The new year should see an even greater use of mobile handsets for wireless internet access. While the technologies are already in place and no major developments are expected, the launch of Apple's new tablet sometime in 2010, perhaps as early as the first quarter, could be a further boost to personal mobile communication.

Competition between the three national mobile operators will continue to bring prices down, but mobile data will be the true market driver and not voice of SMS. 2009 showed that people are accessing the internet on their mobile device more and more as a result of their participation on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. This trend is set to continue in 2010, and talk of Web 3.0, the next generation of social networks on the web, will become more mainstream.

Two new mobile virtual network operators (MVNO), Ping by the Nationalist Party and City Mobile by the Valletta Football Club will serve their first subscribers this year. So far MVNOs have had mixed fortunes, with Red Touch Fone by the Labour Party thriving on while Bay Mobile folding up within a few months of its launch.

The adjudication process for the implementation of a new national e-learning platform should be completed this year and work on the platform should start in earnest. The Malta Information Technology Agency is leading the project which should have a significant impact on the Maltese educational system.

The government's 2010 Budget was full of incentives to promote creativity, research and innovation in industry, investment in the government's ICT system and measures to promote the production of digital services in Malta. These also include the setting up of a national bio-technology centre in San Ġwann. We will have to wait and see how these measures are implemented, as it is not the first time they don't take off at all, like the testing of ultra high-speed internet access to homes through fibre-optics mentioned in the 2009 Budget speech.

Following the success of the first two editions, the Digital Arts Expo has become part of the technology calendar and is expected to be organised once again, together with the Digital Arts Awards which debuted last year. The future of Informatix, the replacement to the IT&T Fair, could be in doubt following the unsuccessful first edition last year.

Towards the end of this year we will start evaluating whether Malta has truly become one of the top 10 information societies in the world, as envisaged in the government's information technology strategy 2008-2010 named The Smart Island.

Some of the targets set in the document, launched in late 2007, include having all government services online, 80 per cent of homes having fast internet access and the opening of 100 community centres with fast internet access by the end of this year.