Uptake of mobile and fixed phone and data services continued to grow last year, the Malta Communications Authority said.

The MCA's Communications Market Review for July to December last year found that pay television was the only sector to go against this trend, with take-up declining as an increasing proportion of customers opted for a bundled subscription.

Phone connections

Mobile telephony consolidated its position as the most commonly used form of voice communication in Malta, with 807.6 million voice call minutes registered in 2016, representing a 4.7% increase in traffic volumes over the previous year.

This contrasted sharply with developments for the fixed telephony sector, where voice minute traffic volumes dipped by 7.7% year-on-year.

Notwithstanding the decline in traffic volumes, the fixed telephony subscriber base strengthened year-on-year

Notwithstanding the decline in traffic volumes, the fixed telephony subscriber base strengthened year-on-year, with 4,157 more subscriptions reported at the end of the reporting period.

This showed that people still valued having a fixed line connection at home or at their business premises, even though their usage of the service was falling.

The mobile sector also registered an upward trend in take-up, with the number of subscriptions going up by 6.3% year-on-year to reach 592,923 by the end of 2016.

The MCA noted that the increase was in part due to users buying multiple SIM cards rather than switching providers and in part due to changing consumer preferences, with more connected devices and demand for mobile data growing. 

Improved minute allowances and falling average rates per minute of communication contributed to the increase in mobile voice traffic volumes.

Phone user revenue dips 

The positive developments for the mobile sector did not, however, translate to improved revenue streams on a per user level for local service providers. In fact, mobile telephony average revenue per user (Arpu) in 2016 stood at €177.38, down by 2.2% from €181.37 in 2015.

The spread of consumption by end-users over their multiple subscriptions contributed to the drop in mobile telephony Arpu, alongside falling average rates per minute of voice communication and improved data and minute allowances.

The fixed telephony sector registered a bigger drop in Arpu, with this indicator sliding by of 5.7% from €151.46 in 2015 to €142.77 in 2016.

The main factor explaining the drop in fixed line telephony Arpu was the significant decline reported in terms of voice traffic volumes.

Another important trend concerned the changing consumer preferences in view of mobile data usage levels.

The number of end-users actively using mobile broadband services was up by almost 39,000

Broadband continues to grow

The number of end-users actively using mobile broadband services was up by almost 39,000 (14.4%) between December 2015 and December 2016.

This increase coincided with the rising popularity of mobile applications, social networking and other online activities, which all contributed to a stronger take-up of mobile data plans. There were instances where service providers offered more generous data allowances, enticing end-users to make higher use of mobile broadband data services.

Take-up of fixed broadband strengthened in 2016, with 8,088 new customers added to the local subscriber base. This increase in take-up pushed up the fixed broadband penetration rate to 39% by the end of 2016, compared to 37.6% a year earlier.

The customer profile for the sector changed considerably last year, as service providers notified their clients that some legacy products were being withdrawn and eventually customers switched to connections supporting faster download speeds of 30Mbps or more.

The number of fixed broadband subscriptions supporting download speeds of 30Mbps or higher at the end of last year stood at almost 101,755.

This figure was up by 3,822 (or by 3.9%) when compared to the number of such subscriptions recorded a year earlier.

Broadband demand keeps on growing. Photo: ShutterstockBroadband demand keeps on growing. Photo: Shutterstock

 

Fixed broadband subscriptions supporting download speeds of 30Mbps or higher represented 59.4% of the local fixed broadband subscriber base.

Take-up of fixed broadband in a bundle remained very popular in 2016, with the proportion of such subscriptions rising from 72.7% at the end of 2015 to 78.7% at the end of last year. The increasing number of fixed broadband connections on super-fast download speeds enabled local service providers to improve Arpu by almost 10%, from €181.45 in 2015 to €199.45 in 2016.

This increase in Arpu happened at a time when the average price per Mbit was down by 26.3% year-on-year.

The falling take-up of pay TV contrasts with the positive developments in take-up reported for other electronic communications services. 

Fixed phone lines are still popular. Photo: Shutterstock

Fixed phone lines are still popular. Photo: Shutterstock

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.