The year 2010 will go down in the history of Maltese technology and communication as the year of HD TV and broadband internet access. It witnessed the launch of the first high-definition commercial TV service in Malta and broadband internet reigned supreme, having killed off slow dial-up access and consolidated the market in the hands of the big internet service providers.
It could have been the year of the tablet but the Apple iPad was not yet officially available in Malta, though a few Maltese did try to ride the tablet wave and acquired one from abroad or from unofficial local outlets at a premium.
Statistics were very positive for Malta in 2010. There were different reports and surveys issued throughout the year which confirmed Malta’s good quality of services and its good ranking among the EU countries. However areas for further development were also spotted.
The Communications Market Review for the period January – June 2010, published by the Malta Communications Authority (MCA), showed a steady development of the Maltese communications sector and a continued sign of maturity, already evident in the previous report. The report confirmed dial-up internet access is dead but fixed-line telephony is not, small internet service providers have disappeared and internet access is actually cheaper and of good quality, given the low number of complaints lodged.
Then, the latest report published by the European Commission just a few weeks ago showed how Malta is performing above the EU average in terms of penetration and growth rate of fast broadband internet access but well below in terms of speed and mobile broadband access. The issue of speed and quality was also mentioned in a Cisco-commissioned survey of broadband internet access around the world. In December Malta got another certificate of excellence for its e-government services in the latest e-Government Benchmarking Report covering European countries.
Melita commercially launched the first high-definition TV service in Malta, in time for the Fifa Football World Cup in June. The take-up was quite positive. In reaction, Melita’s competitor in the TV services sector, Go, also announced it was testing HD TV services but not over its digital terrestrial TV service but through fibre-optic cable. The latter is considered the next step in the evolution of wired high-speed data and internet services access technology in our homes and offices. Later in the year Go also announced plans to start its commercial trials of internet protocol TV (IPTV), which will see TV services being offered over both ADSL and fiber technologies.
However another important development in the TV sector that was planned to happen on the night of December 31 of this year was postponed. The MCA announced that the digital terrestrial TV switchover was to be postponed to February 1, 2011 in order to have a smoother transition. On that day all analogue TV signals in Malta will be switched off.
Towards the end of summer reports on this newspaper ignited the debate on illegal satellite TV viewing in Malta with the help of internet-based services.
Like the rest of the world Malta was swept with the craze for the latest Apple gadgets, the iPhone 4 and the iPad. Malta officially got the iPhone 4 in September, some three months after the official launch, but the iPad has not yet been officially launched in Malta, though a few hundred Maltese have nevertheless bought the tablet from local and foreign retailers. Others have opted to buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab, one of the first rivals to the iPad to make it to Malta.
The Budget 2011 speech did not offer a lot in terms of ideas and initiatives related specifically to technology and this newspaper described it as a “balancing act” even in terms of technology. This was in contrast to previous years. Some of the most important initiatives mentioned were related to education, namely the new ICT building at university, the new national e-learning platform and a National Centre for Interactive Science in Villa Bighi, Kalkara.
Indeed, the national e-learning platform garnered some attention during 2010, not just for the kick-off of the tendering process for this strategic initiative in Maltese education but also because the first steps of the process were marred by reports of conflict of interest by some foreign consultants.
In terms of human capital, there were interesting developments. Pierre Mallia left his post as country manager of Microsoft Malta, after founding and managing the office for several years. MITA, the Malta Information Technology Agency, and the government launched the local eSkills Alliance Malta with the aim to address skills shortages within the ICT industry that is hindering the sector from reaching its full potential.
MITA is behind an important development of the local ICT industry. In October it published an Open Source Vision white paper with the aim of nurturing the proliferation of open source software. The agency insists that open source will only be used when it is “non-intrusive” and does not disrupt current systems.
In October SmartCity Malta inaugurated SCM 01, the first office building in Ricasoli. The official pomp could not hide the fact that the state-of-the-art building is situated in the middle of a large construction site and that so far the building is not yet hosting any employees from the well-recognised international ICT companies. However this newspaper reported how DayBreak, an American hi-tech company which provides a contact list database, started operations in Malta a few weeks ago and is planning to move to SmartCity as it hopes to create 1,000 jobs in Malta by 2014.
The year 2010 may also be remembered for the attempts to resurrect the printed telephone directory, after the MCA, following a public consultation exercise, labeled this service as a “universal service” which has to be provided as part of a “minimum set of electronic communication services essential for the general public to participate in society, and those which are already available to the great majority of citizens.”