‘Televiewers might have to pay to see free-to-air channels’

Opposition spokesman on communications Michael Farrugia yesterday warned that if Channel 66 stopped transmitting, televiewers who currently did not pay to watch free-to-air channels could be forced to resort to paying for the service.

In a structured speech encompassing a myriad of points on communications, Dr Farrugia told Parliament that the main proposal of the European radio spectrum policy programme was to liberalise the 800 MHz upper band by 2015 in order for these to be used by wireless broadband services.

Malta would definitely face a number of problems in order to implement this because it used Channel 66 on this band to broadcast free-to-air channels. Furthermore, lower bands were subject to interferences from Sicily and if the situation persisted, this target would be impossible to reach by 2015.

Since Channel 66 transmitted a number of television stations, it did not manage to transmit free-to-air channels in high definition. A solution would be for the government to acquire more channels and transmit on different frequencies, thus offering consumers free-to-air channels in high definition. The government ought to make its position clear and declare which direction it would be taking. What agreements were being made with the EU regarding this problem?

Earlier, Dr Farrugia said this was a sector which affected consumers more than operators. Recently, consumers had been offered a bad deal on services related to communications. A case in point was when recently Go and Melita had stopped transmitting some channels.

He believed that in order to protect consumers, there should be a reassessment of the small print in contracts because many tended to ignore this. Furthermore, one could not debate what was included in the small print: one had either to accept it or do away with the service.

He suggested that this issue be evaluated by the Consumers Department in conjunction with the Malta Communications Authority. Such contracts only protected the interest of the provider and did not offer any protection to consumers.

There were instances when consumers paid the full price for a service which the provider was not in a position to provide. As an example, he quoted the case of a person who paid for a high-speed internet service when their home telephone line could not support it.

Providers did not check with clients whether they had the right lines to support the speed they were buying. Consumers, on the other hand, were not aware of this issue.

When selling 3G services, many providers also failed to notify customers beforehand that reception in certain areas was quite poor.

In its electoral campaign the government had promised that it would be revoking the television licence. Yet three years later consumers were facing a situation where some were being asked to pay for this licence while others had bought television sets and not registered them and were, therefore, not being asked to pay the licence.

Consumers were not being given the necessary information regarding the 112 EU emergency telephone number. There should also be more information regarding the 116 numbers. The 116000 telephone number was reserved in all member states as a hotline for reporting missing children. 116111 was allocated directly to children who sought someone to talk to and request assistance. A third number, 116123, had been reserved for emotional support. There was also the 116006 for support for victims of crime and 116117 for non-emergency medical on-call services.

The digital agenda was one of the seven flagships of the EU, which was insisting that principal directives should be implemented and had set a number of targets. The Digital Agenda 2020 envisaged that by 2013 everyone should have access to basic broadband. What would be done to ensure that wiring systems could sustain this speed? he asked.

The Bill mentioned the need to protect against interferences. Not much was being done by the government in order to solve this problem once and for all.

Malta should have updated technological devices in order to move in line with European developments; otherwise obsolete technology would be made use of. 3D television cameras should be procured because even the movie sector was moving towards the 3D technology.

Moreover, one should also consider updating the technology of present home digital boxes. Currently other countries were making use of EMPAC 4 and even EMPAC 6, while in local homes one still found EMPAC 1 and EMPAC 2 technology.

Referring to telephone tapping, Dr Farrugia said he felt strongly against any lenient treatment in such circumstances. If MPs made a declaration about such an experience, as had been reported a few weeks ago by two current MPs, Parliament should take the matter very seriously. The House should not be interested in the contents of the telephone call but in eliminating such abuse, especially on a mobile line.

Passing on to the opening of the 800 megaHertz frequency, he augured that the free-to-air would not be closed down in order for this frequency to be released.

Moreover, he hoped no-one was informing providers about reports made by people who reported high electromagnetic fields emanating from village roof poles. He said he was making such a statement because he was informed that people were reporting such incidents but strangely enough the electromagnetic fields would be diminished when checks were carried out. It was important to acknowledge that problems could be caused and that frequencies had to be within the WHO-set limits.

Dr Farrugia called on the government to solve the problems with Italy regarding the interference of Italian channels on frequencies used locally. Moreover, he called on the minister to say whether Channel 66 was to be shut down in 2015 or not. He said that if the problems with Italy were not dealt with quickly, the problems would persist in the future, especially with regard to high-definition service and the “free-to-air” channels.