Between July and December of last year, the Maltese communications sector witnessed a considerable increase in the use of mobile devices at the expense of fixed-line telephony which shrank significantly, according to the latest market review for the period by the Malta Communications Authority.
“In the reporting period, take-up and usage of mobile services, fixed and mobile broadband internet services and television distribution services grew considerably over the corresponding period a year earlier,” the report said. “The fixed line sector did not, however, share the same outcome, in that it exhibited a significant decline in traffic volumes.
“Some of the most significant trends that have been observed in the reporting period are the shift towards mobile voice usage over fixed voice usage, the increase in take-up of bundled services, the increase in take-up of 3G-enabled services, and stronger price competition particularly for mobile communications.”
The figures for the mobile sector are short of impressive. The number of mobile subscriptions went up by 14.5 per cent since the end of 2010 and totalled 521,748 as at the end of 2011; 80 per cent of these were pre-paid. This means there were almost 1.25 subscriptions per person living in the country.
Noticeable trends included significantly higher mobile traffic volumes in terms of voice, which was up 16.2 per cent in terms of calls and 28 per cent in terms of minutes. The number of outgoing text messages went slightly down, from 302.3 million in the second half of 2010 to 301.5 million in the second half of 2011. However, MMS traffic went up from 56,565 to 108,315. Both local and international mobile calls and domestic SMS went down in price.
On the other hand, the number of fixed line subscriptions declined by 6.2 per cent since December 2010 and totalled 232,211 as at the end of last year. Traffic volumes were significantly lower than traffic volumes recorded. The number of outgoing voice calls was down by 7.9 per cent and the number of outgoing voice traffic minutes was down by 7.4 per cent.
Internet also registered increases across the board. The number of fixed internet broadband subscriptions increased by 6.3 per cent to 129,320 as at the end of December 2011. This means 31 per cent of the Maltese population had internet access.
75.5%
Consumers with a connection of between 6Mbps and 10Mbps
Meanwhile, 51 per cent were of the DSL type, 45.7 per cent cable internet, and 3.3 per cent were fixed wireless. This continued to prove the decline of the already unpopular WiMax wireless broadband.
The MCA reports also shows how more fixed broadband consumers are moving towards faster access speeds, with 75.5 per cent had a connection of between 6Mbps and 10Mbps.
Take-up and usage of mobile wireless broadband, i.e. of broadband services encompassing 3G services offered over a mobile phone handset and modem keys and cards, has increased in the 12 months to July 2011. Malta’s mobile broadband penetration measured on the basis of the number of active end-users of dedicated data service cards/modems/keys was 3.2 per 100 people (up from 2.6 in July 2010), compared to an EU average of 7.5 per 100 people.
In terms of pay TV subscriptions, at the end of 2011 there were 148,454 subscriptions, up by 3.3 per cent. Digital subscriptions for digital terrestrial TV and digital cable continued to increase at the expense of analog cable.
As at the end of 2011, the DTTV platform accounted for 46.8 per cent of the total number of digital Pay TV subscriptions at the time, up from 46.2 per cent. The digital cable platform accounted for the remaining share, at 53.2 per cent, down from 53.8 per cent.
The MCA market review did not account for satellite viewing as there are to date no registered satellite broadcasters or platforms in Malta.
During the second half of 2011, the number of complaints filed with the MCA amounted to 122. The authority only proceeded against the service provider in 35 per cent of the cases.
Almost a third of complaints filed were over TV services, followed by 27 per cent related to mobile services, and 18 per cent to internet. There were no complaints at all over e-commerce in Malta.
When broken down according to issues, 31 per cent were over contractual provisions (an increase of almost eight per cent over the same period the previous year) and 20 per cent over quality of service (also up by four per cent).
This could be interpreted as Maltese consumers being happy with the technical quality of the service but not with how the companies deal with their customers.
The report is available at www.mca.org.mt.