Tomorrow sees the dawn of a new age at Melita plc as its house of brands - Melita Cable, Melita Digital, its telephony arm Hello, the Onvol internet service provider, and corporate operation Melita Business Communications - gently collapses under the umbrella of a single name, Melita.

Its next milestone - the launch of its mobile offering - will take place "soon" and a carefully planned business model will finally be complete.

Last week, Melita customers received mail shots spelling out the brand fusion and how they can expect to enjoy better services and more choice. The cynics should hold their horses. Melita's chief operating officer Stephen Wright says every aspect of the organisation's operations has changed, insisting this is "not a paint job of the company".

The former Melita Cable plc has come a long way since its launch as a cable television provider in 1991. That analogue TV platform has since migrated to digital, and over the years the company branched out into high speed broadband internet provision, fixed line telephony, and corporate services.

A year ago, private equity firm GMT Communication Partners acquired a stake in Melita and joined forces with MC Ventures to offer third-generation mobile services. With 28 investments in 18 countries, GMT Communications has a 15-year record of investment in the communications industry: its syndicated portfolio financings are in excess of €3.5 billion.

Mr Wright points out that the international investors' role goes beyond ploughing in funds: they also support Melita's sourcing efforts. "They don't just invest a couple of hundred million euros - they have a very clear plan of how we develop and how we move forward: how we invest in the current infrastructure, in new infrastructure, employees and the company itself, the rebranding of the company," he says. "They have also laid down a challenge of putting the customer at the centre of everything we do. They have a lot of experience with other companies internationally, so we are able to draw on that. That is primarily the reason for rebranding now."

By moving the spotlight from the technology involved in its operations onto individual customers, Melita aims to build on its heritage. Briton Wright is aware of Melita's place not only in the market, but also within subscribers' lifestyles.

"We held customer study groups, and we listened to some good feedback and some critical feedback," Mr Wright explains. "We looked at our customer profile and at what we, in turn, should be to fit it. This new direction is the result of that."

Melita has done away with complicated hierarchy and currently operates on its flattest, most responsive structure ever. Mr Wright leads a team of eight, young, and ambitious (and some long-standing) Maltese managers, who drive around 300 members of staff to live up to the organisation's refreshed brand and its goals. Mr Wright says all employees have understood the rationale behind the re-engineering and what is expected of them - end to end. Their performance will, in turn, be gauged by monthly surveys of the operations at the call centre.

Since January, Melita has recruited 88 new members of staff, 20 of whom will join the call centre team to bring the total complement to 70. From tomorrow, the call centre will be operational round the clock.

"We have a challenge to deliver as much of the service the customers expect, and customers are expecting more," Mr Wright explains. "I think our shortcomings have been technology-focused. We are in a service industry, but we leverage technologies. A lot of companies can get lost in that. If customers get home late and have technical queries, they can now call at any time."

Melita is "aggressively" seeking new content to offer its 100,000-plus subscribers. It has acquired rights to air the Premiership and Serie A fixtures for the next two seasons, and this week concluded negotiations for Champions League, UEFA Cup, and Super Cup rights for the next four years.

In mid-October, the movies format will change. Melita is to launch a dedicated movie channel and another solely featuring the latest and most popular UK and US series. The channels will change 'mood' according to time band, and programming will encompass theme nights to relate to customers' lifestyles. HD offerings will be increased according to demand.

"Our TV product is still growing, our revenues are still growing, and our subscribers are still growing," Mr Wright points out. "We can turn to our shareholders and find out what is going on in other markets, look at services that are compelling to our customers, and add them to our packages."

Melita's internet arm is to be consolidated considerably as contractors are busy laying a new 24-fibre cable (Malta's third cable) in a significant investment that will not only increase capacity, but also safeguard service integrity. The new infrastructure, which brings with it wholesale business opportunities, will ensure that there is redundancy and security for residential and corporate customers.

Meanwhile, Melita's move to offer mobile services will not overshadow what has, until now, been its core business. "We set out to be the most affordable on the phone, fastest on the internet, the best experience on TV, and we operate by those philosophies. We have our own targets internally, but in reality there are no limits to our business. We are seeing double digit growth across all products."

Mr Wright says Melita is in no hurry to bring its mobile business on line; the sites are being finished off, and the infrastructure, provision systems and networks put in place.

"We are very happy with our triple play offering, and we want to make sure that we go to market with a good product. Then, our existing customers can have four products and be entitled to discounts on them.

"Customers have had enough of the duopoly in mobile telephony. We have a 3G licence and we can compete on overall content. It is another medium enabling us to broadcast content. It has to be competitive and bring enhancement to people's lifestyles."

In the meantime, seven Melita stores are to open over the next few months to complement the organisation's vast distribution chain. Mr Wright insists "Melita will be present in every town" when the network is complete.

At the very least, consumers should be delighted that some serious competition is in the offing when Melita reaches the end of this road.