Maltese consumers are still paying higher rates for mobile phone services than many of their counterparts in the EU even if more competition, particularly since third operator Melita set up shop in 2009, tariffs have gone down.
The European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Nellie Kroes said so in response to a parliamentary question tabled by Labour MEP Louis Grech, who wanted to know the Commission’s latest analyses of Malta’s mobile industry.
Until a few years ago, when mobile telephony was dominated by Vodafone and Go, Maltese consumers were paying among the highest rates in the EU to make a call, even on a local level. However, Melita and two minor telecom companies launched by the two main political parties pushed prices down, even though, according to the Commission, this is still not enough.
“With respect to the evolution of mobile phone charges in Malta, the Commission noted in its recently published Digital Agenda Scoreboard that a clear downward trend had been observed since 2008, mainly due to the market entry of a third mobile operator in 2009 and of two MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) in 2010,” Ms Kroes said.
“While the average price per minute remains high in comparison with other EU member states, the gap between the average price in Malta and the EU average price has decreased,” she added.
The commissioner confirmed to Mr Grech that the Commission’s aim was to try to bring about further cuts in roaming mobile rates across the EU, if possible to the same level as those of local calls.
She said the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) agreed by member states a few months ago had set the objective of further developing the single market for telecoms services.
“While, ideally, this goal would be achieved through market forces, the Commission believes that market developments indicate that competition has not developed for roaming services,” she said.
“The Commission is determined to find solutions that would reinforce competitive market conditions and the DAE sets out a target that ‘the difference between roaming and national tariffs would approach to zero by 2015’. This target could be considered to be met if competition allows consumers to access roaming charges that are approaching competitive domestic level prices,” she said.
The Commisson last week tabled new proposals aimed at forcing mobile networks across the EU to revise downwards their roaming rates while introdcuing more competition even in the roaming market.
Asked about Malta’s position on the latest proposals, a government spokesman said that although Malta had not drawn up its formal proposal, it agreed in principle with further reductions.
However, he said Malta’s position would only be drawn up after consultations with the private sector.