Maltacom is “back in business”, following the privatisation of the former parastatal corporation and a period of business readjustment, and expects to be the first Maltese telephony operator to offer quadruple play services when it launches its digital television services in the first half of next year.

Quadruple play refers to the offering of fixed and mobile telephony, broadband internet and television by a single company and the company expects that by the middle of next year it will be ready to launch the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTTV) for which it already has a licence from the Malta Communications Authority.

Speaking yesterday, Maltacom head of communications Franco Aloisio commented: “With a strategy of offering fixed line telephony, mobile telephony and broadband internet, Maltacom is well placed to offer its clients a total telecoms solution.

“With the launch of its TV offering, Maltacom will be the only telecoms company in Malta with a quad-play strategy, which translates into a range of value-for-money services for all of Maltacom’s customers.”

Yesterday the company announced it is on the threshold of finalising two important upgrades to its infrastructure – one to its telephony switching network, which has cost the company e6.7 million, and another to its international internet bandwidth.

The boost in bandwidth means that by this month Maltacom will have effectively tripled its bandwidth since August – from 620 megabits per second to 1.8 gigabits per second. The company has also set up an alternate international link to Milan, through Telecom Italia, in order to reduce Malta’s reliance on the Palermo link, as well as to provide for the increased bandwidth.

Last year, the company also invested in a microwave link with Palermo with a view to enhancing the resilience of Malta’s communications connection to the rest of the world. The microwave link will also be able to be used for data in the event of a natural disaster in the Mediterranean.

The developments, explained Maltanet CEO Keith Fearne, are critical on three levels – in reaching Malta’s targets on broadband penetration rates, in providing the kind of the service demanded by the numerous e-commerce and e-gaming companies setting up shop in Malta and in assisting the government in its bid to promote Malta as an information and communications technology centre of excellence by providing the required infrastructure to realise this goal.

Malta’s broadband market is growing every month, Mr Fearne said, and October had seen a record 2,000 new broadband subscribers. He added that initial trials for the provision of DSL services “at very high speeds” are being scheduled for the first quarter of 2007.

The Group has, at a cost of e6.2 million, upgraded its telephony switching network to a Next Generation Softswitch architecture that will allow it to eventually roll out its next generation services – including those related to the

convergence of fixed line and mobile services. Rolling out the new

network cost Maltacom some 3,000 man hours. One future form of such a convergence, explained Maltacom technical director Joe Bugeja, would be along the lines of customers being able to use their mobile phones at home to receive land line calls, and also being able to receive home phone calls on a mobile while outside the house.

A considerable amount of the investment in the new network has also gone towards upgrades to allow the carrier selection and number portability required by regulatory requirements, which go towards enabling other operators to use the Maltacom telephony network.

The new switching network, Mr Bugeja added, has enhanced fixed line resilience and includes a standby backup node and several layers of redundancy. While some 80 per cent of Maltacom’s customers have been upgraded to the new network, the remaining 20 per cent are expected to have been switched over by the first week of December