Mobile phones now seriously outnumber the population following huge growth last year which brought the total number of subscriptions in the country to 521,748.
According to statistics featured in the Malta Communications Authority’s annual report, there are 418,158 prepaid subscriptions and 103,590 on contract.
Market penetration has reached 126 per cent, up from 110 per cent in 2010, thanks to 14.5 per cent year-on-year growth which has been unparalleled since 2005.
On the other hand, there are only 232,193 fixed line subscriptions, down by 15,433 from 2010.
But while mobiles have clearly overtaken fixed line subscriptions, the old habit of preferring landlines to mobiles for long calls has been maintained, even though mobile call costs are falling.
Fixed lines were used for 194 million calls last year, totalling 664 million minutes. By comparison, mobile users made 329.5 million calls (up from 2010’s 279.5 million) but only spent 492.1 million minutes on the line.
On average, each mobile subscriber made 631 calls last year, translating to an average of 943 minutes.
The upward trend of mobile calls does not follow through for international roaming or messaging, both of which have seen a decline in popularity.
Inbound roaming minutes decreased by 7.4 million (almost a 20 per cent drop) while outbound roaming minutes dropped slower, by 0.5 million, or five per cent.
Meanwhile, SMS traffic fell by 6.4 per cent: to 573.8 million messages last year from 612.8 million in 2010.
Last year also saw an increase in the number of mobile phone users who changed their operator.
In fact, 60,897 active users (11.5 per cent of the market) switched operator last year.
Vodafone galvanised its position as the market leader with just under half (49.8 per cent) of the mobile subscriptions market share, compared to Go’s 37.4 per cent and Melita’s 10.7 per cent.
Other operators, which include the small political party operators Ping and Red Touch, account for just two per cent of the market.
Vodafone and Melita made similar gains from 2010 reflecting in the 4.7 per cent market share loss for Go. Melita also maintains a slightly stronger showing than Go when it comes to the pay TV, where Melita controls 50.4 per cent of the market compared to Go’s 49.6 per cent.
According to the MCA’s annual report, the telecommunications sector accounted for 1.65 per cent of Malta’s gross domestic product, contributing €91.4 million to the economy.