Melita plc said this evening that it would appeal decisions by the Malta Communications Authority which fined it €10,000 in relation to billing procedures and changes to a TV channel line-up.
It also announced that as a result of a multi-million euro investment programme in customer care, 75% of calls to its call centre were now being answered in under a minute. Moreover, 70% of all calls were resolved during the first call.
140 channels on XL
Referring to the fine imposed by the MCA after it removed four football club channels from the XL package, without informing subscribers and giving them the option to back out of their contracts, Melita said certain channels were discontinued on its platform for reasons related to exclusive broadcasting rights. However, it said, it had doubled the channel line-up for the XL TV subscribers, offering additional channels for free.
"The XL package now contains 140 channels and XL customers were given around 50 extra channels for free. This is the largest TV package available in Malta," the company insisted.
"While the MCA did not take a stand on this great positive improvement to customers, it also remained silent on other recent cases of local and international channels ceasing broadcast both on the Melita and GO platforms."
It reiterated that it had no control over third party channel broadcasting.
Melita also pointed out that this content was still not broadcast on the GO platform notwithstanding that GO had exclusive rights for broadcast.
"As a result, football fans were deprived, and in some cases are still deprived, from following the club channels for a period of time. This further highlights the urgent need for regulatory bodies to ensure that content is shared between operators to avoid these restrictive and damaging situations from happening every time exclusive rights expire."
It said that last year, it approached GO to discuss content sharing, at a time when Melita owned exclusive broadcasting rights for all top-tier sports assets and GO owned none.
This offer was repeated recently during the probe conducted by the Parliamentary Committee for Social Affairs.
"However, it takes two to tango and GO's refusal to cooperate is only depriving customers from following their favorite sports," Melita charged.
Billing procedures
Referring to the MCA's request for an audit report on its billing system. Melita said the system typically adopted by any telecom operator such as Melita and GO, was unavoidably complex due to the nature of the services provided and the large number of promotions, special offers, upgrades, periodic packages, seasonal content, premium offerings and number of outlets per client and with further variations for commercial and domestic customers.
"Melita has been kept in the dark on the criteria that the MCA is adopting to judge the IT system employed for billing procedures and also, on the international telecommunication industry benchmarks that the MCA is applying to reach its decisions.
"Moreover, Melita is contesting that it is unreasonable and unrealistic for the MCA to expect an audit report on undefined criteria and benchmarks within the limited time frame provided."
The company said it investigates and resolves letters it receives from customers and others published in the media, but it was unable to investigate and resolve the complaints referred to by the MCA since it was left in the dark on the nature and the quantity of these complaints.
See MCA statement at
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100929/local/melita-fined-10-000-over-billing-sports-programming-complaints