I refer to the article published on 7 July titled ‘Vodafone gets 18m telecom tower on Mellieha ridge’. 

As the regulator of telephony, internet and TV distribution services in Malta, the Malta Communications Authority (MCA) collaborates closely with a large number of stakeholders and other public authorities including the MEPA.

With respect to the building of new towers, the MCA also made a number of recommendations to MEPA with regard to this particular development including the terms of use of this tower to ensure that other operators can also, where feasible make use of the structure, thus reducing the need for further structures of this kind in the area.

In light of the above, we wish to comment on the following statements in the above referenced article.

The article states that ‘the MCA thought of setting up its own mast on the Mellieha Fortizza, but then discarded this notion due to the bad neighbourliness that telecom masts engender in the community. Then MCA plumped for a site that was just meters away from that chosen by Vodafone.’

The MCA does not own or roll-out infrastructure of any kind and at no time did it consider setting up its own masts.

The article goes on to state that ‘now MCA is ready to set conditions for the operation of the mast.’

As indicated above, the Communications Authority will not be setting conditions, however it understands that these will be included in the building permit.  

Mandy Calleja

Communications Coordinator