In the electronic age, where people spend hours on end online and get (almost) everything from there, there still seems to be a place for the printed telephone directory. Those who assumed that there was a foregone answer to the question as to whether or not to print the telephone directory were surprised to hear that the Malta Communications Authority thinks the printed directory is an essential public service.
Whether you prefer to use a printed or an online directory, there is still a further twist to the issue. Like every "essential service", there's money to make out of it, and indeed those responsible for the online directories and directory enquiry services don't want to reveal any figures regarding their use. It's "commercially sensitive", i-Tech was told.
A few weeks ago the MCA issued a decision regarding universal service obligations on electronic communications services. Universal services are the minimum set of electronic communication services considered essential to the general public, and the MCA lists access to fixed telephony services, a printed directory and directory enquiry services and access to public payphones as such. These services should be available on reasonable request without distorting competition, and must be provided at an affordable price.
"The treatment of the printed telephone directory within the universal service regime elicited a considerable amount of interest in the media and from the general public," the authority admitted.
It had also commissioned an independent survey represent-ative of the Maltese population in order to obtain a better understanding of people's perceptions on the validity of this directory. It seems the results of this survey and the comments have influenced the MCA to decide in favour of the retention of the printed directory.
The ball is now in the court of private companies to decide whether to play it back.
"Go is considering all its options in terms of printing the telephone directory," confirmed to i-Tech a company spokesman. "The last printed directory, published in 2004, was distributed to each household and business in Malta and hence thousands of copies were printed. The decision to print or not to print the directory is linked to the obligations arising from the universal service obligations, as well as the changing competitive environment, whereby new operators joined the fixed telephony market in the last years. One also has to consider the financial impact of the printing of the directory, and the alternatives (which have already been mentioned) which were introduced in the past."
In the absence of a printed fixed-line telephone numbers directory, users could go to Go's website and check the online directory service which also covers mobile phone numbers in use locally. There are also numbers where they can phone with an enquiry.
Yet, when i-Tech asked Go and Vodafone to quantify the popularity of the online directory and the number of calls made to the directory enquiry services, no numbers were produced.
Go's spokesman said, "The company fully agrees with customers having access to directory information, and was the first to comply and offer online and directory phone enquiries (1187 and 1182). Thousands of calls are placed to the 1182 and 1187 phone enquiries (fixed and mobile numbers) every day, while the online directory enquiry is one of the most accessed feature in Go's website."
When asked for figures on the use of the 1189 mobile number enquiry services, a Vodafone spokesman simply replied, "We are not able to provide you with the information as it is commercially sensitive."
Interested parties will have until June 30, 2010 to submit an expression of interest to provide any of the universal services, including the printed directory.
The local fixed-line communication market has changed a lot since the publishing of the last printed telephone directory in 2004. At that time only Maltacom provided such a communication service. Now this is provided by Go, Vodafone Malta and Melita. Furthermore, number portability was introduced in 2006, and this made it possible and really easy to change service provider while retaining the same fixed-line or mobile number.
In Malta there are printed directories of communication numbers. One of them is the Yellow Pages, by Ark Publishing, a business directory updated annually in print format, and there is also an online service. Obsolete copies are collected for recycling and a new version is given out free of charge every year.