Malta is fast catching up with the rolling development of communications technology, with the Malta Communication Authority having already assigned two UHF frequencies to develop digital radio transmission, said Communications Minister Censu Galea yesterday.
Mr Galea was addressing the Malta Communications Authority’s third annual conference at the Bay Point Radisson.
“Throughout the years,” said Mr Galea, “thanks to developments in the electronic communications market, Malta has experienced a revolutionary change.”
He said that over the years, the Government had always pushed the idea of sustained communications development.
“Access to mobile services, and the increased take-up of internet and broadband subscriptions, are only a few of the developments that have taken place over the past five years,” he said.
He said interest among existing and prospective investors to operate broadband wireless access networks, the issuing of two digital terrestrial television licenses and the take up of VoIP by businesses and individuals are recent examples of the remarkable developments in this sector.
“We have not only revolutionised the way we think and perform, but also the way we communicate, interact and operate our businesses, making communications an indispensable tool for our own success. Our domestic achievements have, in fact, earned us top ratings among the 25 European Union member states,” he said.
He said Malta was experiencing continued upward growth in the mobile telephony market, with a penetration rate reaching approximately 78.5 per cent of the population, which compared favourably with the rest of Europe. “Latest official figures translate into over 315,000 subscriptions – with an increase of approximately 7,000 since December last year,” he said.
He said other developments include third generation mobile telephony and the MCA will shortly be issuing licenses for 3G mobile network operators.
“This telecommunications revolution has always been Government’s vision. Besides government, the various service providers, who have placed great emphasis on the importance of IT literacy and internet use, also play a key role in this development,” he said.
Mr Galea said the results of this consolidated effort were evident from the fact that the level of broadband subscribers had reached nearly 38,000 – a staggering increase of nearly 10 per cent in the first quarter of 2005.
He also said that two operators had been assigned access to rights of use of radio frequencies in the UHF band for the development and implementation of digital transmission in Malta.
Mr Galea said: “Over the past years, we have witnessed the growth of VoIP and the advancements in technology to provide traditional circuit switched communications using the internet and private IP networks.”
He said that, initially, the roadblocks to adopting VoIP were laden with concern about whether the technology would work as well as traditional telephony. “Today we see many of these fundamental issues fade away as VoIP technology becomes more sophisticated, growing into a viable solution,” he said.
He said that each and every technological system had advantages and disadvantages and the advent of VoIP did not mean that traditional telecom companies are doomed. “VoIP is well on its way to mainstream acceptance and, in the process, threats and vulnerabilities from each environment will combine to present formidable challenges to the success of the technical solution,” he said.
Mr Galea said that in Malta, during the first quarter of this year, the use of VoIP reached around seven million minutes – an increase of around 2.3 million minutes over the same period last year. Moreover, a dramatic increase of 47 per cent had been experienced in international traffic since the introduction of VoIP.