Over €3 million is to be invested so that Melita Mobile matches its competitors' outdoor coverage immediately, group chief executive officer Andrei Torriaini told The Times Business. A further €2 million will be invested in 2011 and 2012.
As the company's exclusive TV rights to English and Italian football leagues run out at the end of the season, Melita is to direct equal investment across its TV offering and double its channel line-up, Mr Torriani added.
The chief executive said Melita Mobile, which launched last February, was currently experiencing a dropped-call rate which was almost at par with competitors and was improving daily.
"Any mobile network requires optimisation," the chief executive said. "It is very important for Melita to continue to receive feedback from customers as this helps us to identify spots where we need to fine-tune further."
Melita Mobile has activated almost 40,000 subscribers since launch, Mr Torriani said.
This year, the company is to engage in discussion with the regulator over the possibility of reducing interconnection charges to pass more savings on to the customer. Mr Torriani said Melita had already received positive feedback from the Malta Communications Authority on the matter.
TV customers will witness a transformation of the company's offering this year. Melita is to channel the investment which would have otherwise been allocated to renewing Barclays Premier League and Series A rights from next season to the entire TV customer base. Mr Torriani described the costs involved in renewing the football rights as "unfeasible".
A new TV line-up, including successful UK, US and European channels and brands, which will double the channel list in each package, is currently being finalised. Three new channels, including the Food Network, launch on February 1.
"We are also looking at ways to move our Hollywood Movies and Series premium offering closer to an on-demand reality which is featuring more and more in our customers' mindset," Mr Torriani explained.
He added Melita would "definitely" launch high definition broadcast content in the first six months of the year, a first for Malta. The introduction of intelligent set-top boxes, allowing for multi-functional personalised services like recording, was also in the offing.
On its broadband internet offering, Mr Torriani said the company's primary focus will shift to quality of service and to continue to develop the product to meet higher customer exigencies.
"While maintaining our leadership position for top speeds, we will invest in enhancing stability of these speeds even during peak download times and in high data-traffic areas," he said.
Mr Torriani said he was committed to enhancing customer experience, strengthening services and products. He added customer feedback had helped identify areas, such as customer care, "where service levels may not be entirely aligned to customer expectations".
He explained Melita had studied all customer touch-points to identify root causes of customer concerns and to enhance accessibility to products and services. The company was also looking into the possibility of introducing self-service kiosks.
Call centre procedures are to be streamlined and the 75 per cent rate of first call resolution will be improved. Current bill layout is to be revamped and simplified. Melita is also to invest further in training programmes.
Melita's 24-hour call centre receives 20,000 calls a week. The company said 80 per cent of calls are answered within a minute.