One of three Maltese companies awarded a licence by the Malta Communications Authority to start providing broadband wireless internet services on the island has decided to drop its plans and relinquish its licence, The Times has learned.
According to the MCA, the licensee, Cellcom Ltd, has decided not to continue with its project although it will still be bound to pay the full fee for its licence, amounting to €46,587 (Lm20, 000) per annum.
Cellcom Ltd, a consortium of Internet service providers (ISPs) owned by Techinvest Group, Waldonet and Keyworld, was one of three companies awarded a licence by the MCA to develop and offer customers broadband wireless services on a commercial basis.
According to the MCA, the other two licensees, Vodafone and Go Mobile, are still moving forward with their plans, with Vodafone already offering its services, while Go Mobile is expected to introduce its services soon.
The MCA was reacting to questions by this newspaper following an EU report issued which criticised the island for the delay in the roll-out of fixed wireless broadband.
According to the Commission, Malta experienced delays in the effective roll-out of the three wireless broadband networks.
However, the MCA said that although it is true that there were some delays, the situation should be normalised in the coming weeks.
A spokesman for the MCA told The Times that at the time when the EC report was compiled, the Broadband Wireless Access technology was still a nascent standard and as such there were unexpected changes in the milestones related to the standards development.
"This affected the operators' implementation plans which in turn resulted in delays in the network rollout, thereby impacting the operators' capability of providing additional broadband services," the spokesman said.
However, Malta is still on the road to have a full roll-out of these services in the coming weeks, according to the Communications regulator.
"Spectrum licences in the 3.5GHz band were issued to Cellcom Ltd, Vodafone Malta Ltd and MobIsle Ltd (Go Mobile). To date Vodafone have launched their services commercially and Go have completed their national coverage and are in the process of launching the service," the spokesman said.
The spokesman said that following Cellcom's decision to abandon its project, the MCA will, in the coming days, be publishing a consultation on how it will be making the released spectrum available on the market.
According to the regulator, both Vodafone and Go have now achieved their national coverage obligations.
Fixed wireless broadband is a type of high-speed Internet access where connections to service providers use radio signals rather than cables. Several different forms of fixed wireless broadband are available to residential and business customers.
This technology utilises transmission towers (sometimes called ground stations) that communicate with each other and with the subscriber's location (sometimes called customer premises).
These ground stations are maintained by Internet providers, similar to cell phone towers. Subscribers install transceiver equipment on their building to communicate with the fixed wireless ground stations.
Unlike systems that communicate into outer space, fixed wireless dishes and radios communicate only with ground stations.
According to the MCA, the licensee, Cellcom Ltd, has decided not to continue with its project although it will still be bound to pay the full fee for its licence, amounting to €46,587 (Lm20, 000) per annum.
Cellcom Ltd, a consortium of Internet service providers (ISPs) owned by Techinvest Group, Waldonet and Keyworld, was one of three companies awarded a licence by the MCA to develop and offer customers broadband wireless services on a commercial basis.
According to the MCA, the other two licensees, Vodafone and Go Mobile, are still moving forward with their plans, with Vodafone already offering its services, while Go Mobile is expected to introduce its services soon.
The MCA was reacting to questions by this newspaper following an EU report issued which criticised the island for the delay in the roll-out of fixed wireless broadband.
According to the Commission, Malta experienced delays in the effective roll-out of the three wireless broadband networks.
However, the MCA said that although it is true that there were some delays, the situation should be normalised in the coming weeks.
A spokesman for the MCA told The Times that at the time when the EC report was compiled, the Broadband Wireless Access technology was still a nascent standard and as such there were unexpected changes in the milestones related to the standards development.
"This affected the operators' implementation plans which in turn resulted in delays in the network rollout, thereby impacting the operators' capability of providing additional broadband services," the spokesman said.
However, Malta is still on the road to have a full roll-out of these services in the coming weeks, according to the Communications regulator.
"Spectrum licences in the 3.5GHz band were issued to Cellcom Ltd, Vodafone Malta Ltd and MobIsle Ltd (Go Mobile). To date Vodafone have launched their services commercially and Go have completed their national coverage and are in the process of launching the service," the spokesman said.
The spokesman said that following Cellcom's decision to abandon its project, the MCA will, in the coming days, be publishing a consultation on how it will be making the released spectrum available on the market.
According to the regulator, both Vodafone and Go have now achieved their national coverage obligations.
Fixed wireless broadband is a type of high-speed Internet access where connections to service providers use radio signals rather than cables. Several different forms of fixed wireless broadband are available to residential and business customers.
This technology utilises transmission towers (sometimes called ground stations) that communicate with each other and with the subscriber's location (sometimes called customer premises).
These ground stations are maintained by Internet providers, similar to cell phone towers. Subscribers install transceiver equipment on their building to communicate with the fixed wireless ground stations.
Unlike systems that communicate into outer space, fixed wireless dishes and radios communicate only with ground stations.