Go is planning to spend €50 million over five years to roll out fibre to homes – but it is not only the telecoms company that will benefit, CEO Yiannos Michaelides said.

“This is a game changer. This is big news not only for Go but for Malta. This will revolutionise the way people use the internet at the same time positioning Malta as a smart country. It will enable all kinds of innovations and applications not only for homes but for other entities,” he said.

CEO Yiannos Michaelides.CEO Yiannos Michaelides.

Go has already connected 17,000 homes through the FTTH project, and will increase that to 33,000 by the end of the year.

“We have got over the learning curve. Rollout takes years and we really need the support of the government to facilitate it as it requires infrastructural works. But that support is paramount; this is a key enabler for the investment,” he warned

The FTTH “super-highway” will pave the way to new services – such as ‘4K’ super high definition TV, which Go will soon demonstrate. This will boost a sector that is losing ground to internet-based TV entertainment – legal and illegal.

In fact, the Malta Communications Authority reported that TV subscriptions were down by 1,025 in 2014 – although Go increased both its market share and subscriber base. However, it is clear that customer preferences are changing and he acknowledged that so-called ‘Over the Top’ – such as pay TV over the internet – services are a must.

“Go will eventually enter that space,” he said. “These will be two exciting areas: the experience itself, and the new services including OTT.”

One of the reasons for Go’s increased subscriber base is its sports content: it recently secured Champions League rights for a further three years. This prompted rival Melita to raise questions about whether Go should be somehow obliged to share the sports content so that customers would not have to choose between the providers.

But Mr Michaelides said that the premium sports content gave Go a clear differentiating advantage – apart from the sports content now being profitable in its own right.

“We have made a huge investment and we want to capitalise on it. This is how it works in all markets. I don’t want to argue with Melita but Sky in the UK recently paid billions to protect its rights. And the content providers want the competition. They would not allow people to share content; it would not be to their benefit,” he said.

The buzzword in the highly-regulated telecommunications industry is access. For FTTH, this means that the MCA is conducting public consultation on wholesale access to the network by Go’s rivals – at a ‘reasonable’ cost.

Mr Michaelides is pragmatic: “The MCA has done a good job in creating the right balance between attracting investment from us but at the same time giving others the chance to eventually access our network.

“We would not have made the investment unless we believed there would be a return on the retail sale or on the wholesale access. Both need to work,” he stressed.

The FTTH investment will benefit other networks – including fixed voice, which has been seeing a steady decline in subscribers, reflecting global trends. The MCA reported that these were down to 230,361 from 244,916 five years ago – though partly due to Go’s clean-up of thousands of inactive prepaid accounts.

He explained that the core of the network was common to fixed and mobile, with the same ‘pipe’ also used for internet and TV consumption. Go is also investing in 4G and Wi-Fi, a very important revenue generator in an otherwise saturated area. The mobile broadband rate is still 36.3 per cent.

“Our customers will benefit from the internet super highway in a seamless way. No one will be able to match us,” he said.

Vodafone has already rolled out 4G but he insisted that Go was not worried at losing the first mover advantage.

“We believe demand for 4G was not as high in Malta as in other European countries. We calculated the timing correctly, in my view.

“Our existing network has already been satisfying the needs of the Maltese. For example TV Anywhere is crystal clear on a smartphone, even using 3G!” he said, explaining that this was because the whole Go network was connected by fibre to the internet.

“We are the only provider who has this, not even Vodafone or Melita. All our antennas have a fibre connection to the internet which provides a better experience for mobile broadband. That is a big advantage.”

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