The majority of local businesses are largely satisfied with their interaction with electronic communications service providers operating in Malta, according to the latest business perceptions survey carried out by the Malta Communications Authority.

With a significant majority of interviewed companies having a subscription to fixed telephony (90%) as well as fixed broadband (86%) along with a significant proportion of businesses offering their employees with a mobile connection (41%), the general perception was that the services purchased are of a good quality and offered at a reasonable price.

Respondents generally showed a lack of awareness as to their monthly expenditures. Of those businesses that were aware of their monthly expenses, the majority felt that their monthly expenditure was reasonable.

Also, of note is that only a small percentage of respondents reported having switched between operators in the last two years. For example, only 5% of respondents having a fixed broadband connection changed their operator over the last two years, and only 6% in the case of mobile subscriptions. This somewhat corresponds to the survey finding of a perceived high level of quality of service being offered by local service providers to their business clientele.

Notwithstanding this, a segment of respondents still perceive switching to be an inconvenient process and that switching would not meet their business requirements.

HIGHLIGHTS

• 51% of businesses stating make active use of mobile broadband, particularly for chat-based and voice-based Over-the-Top services (OTTs).

• 41% of businesses reporting having a mobile subscription say that they provide their employees with a mobile phone for business purposes.

• Post-paid plans are the most popular type of subscription (93%) for mobile.

• 92% of respondents use mobile broadband for e-mail, followed by social media presence and website access at 74% and 58% respectively.

• 86% of all businesses reported having a fixed broadband connection at their place of work, an 11 percentage point increase when compared to 2014.

• Only 12% purchase tailor-made plans for their fixed broadband.

• Only 34% of respondents knew their monthly expenditure on the service. The large majority of these reported spending less than €100 a month on the service. Less than half of these deemed such an expenditure to be reasonable.

• 59% of businesses reported having a bundled subscription, an increase of 3 percentage points over 2014 results.

• 81% of respondents using mobile broadband services reported use OTTs, compared to 51% of respondents having a fixed broadband connection. Chat is the most popular form of OTT followed by voice and video OTT services respectively.

The MCA has been carrying out the Business Perception Surveys on a two-yearly interval since 2008.