Minister for Communication and Competitiveness Censu Galea last week visited Multiplus’ offices and technical premises at the Hilton Business Tower in St Julian’s. Patrick Vella, Chief of Policy and Planning at the Malta Communications Authority, accompanied Mr Galea.
The company’s chief executive officer Dr Jan Spiteri and general manager Anton Attard welcomed the delegation at Multiplus. During the visit, the delegation was introduced to the company and its employees and also toured the technical facilities from where the company will start operating its digital terrestrial television services on 1 July.
In his welcoming speech, Dr Jan Spiteri outlined how, following the liberalisation of the pay TV sector in 2001 and, given the potential market opportunity, Multiplus was created with the objective of introducing a cost-effective, viable and cost-competitive alternative to the sole provider of TV services which has existed since 1991. In February 2003 Multiplus applied to the MCA to install and operate a DTTV network. The national DTTV network was successfully coordinated in September 2004 and the policy framework for the introduction of DTTV completed in early 2005.
Dr Spiteri thanked the Ministry for Communication and Competitiveness and the Malta Communications Authority for their combined efforts in ensuring the creation of a national DTTV network and a comprehensive framework within which the introduction of DTTV could take place and progress.
“The obligations set out by the MCA for anybody wishing to operate DTTV technology, have ensured that only the highest standards will prevail, in terms of both the quality of services and competitiveness. They have rightly set their standards high and have thus ensured that any DTTV service made available in Malta will meet only the highest possible standards for the ultimate benefit of the consumer,” Dr Spiteri said.
Dr Spiteri added, “In line with these obligations, Multiplus has adhered to the highest possible standards in its bid to introduce this technology to Malta and has implemented a state-of-the-art network, making use of the latest technologies to ensure it not only delivers a first-class service but that it does so cost-effectively, allowing it to deliver cost-competitive services in a sustainable manner. Besides having good financial backing and able to draw upon a wealth of experience from its various shareholders (broadcasting, telecommunications, finance and in depth knowledge of the local market) M+ has made the best use of the available technologies and solutions to survive successfully in a highly competitive environment.”
“The high level set-up, our professional services and the competitive rates we are marketing are all in line with Multiplus’ commitment as a customer orientated company, geared to meet the challenges that exist in today’s open and competitive market. In line with this Multiplus is promoting an open standard box which is fully interoperable, meaning that the box is not only good for the Multiplus services but the customer can use this box with any service provider available on the market,” Dr Spiteri concluded.