Melita plans full entry into fixed telephony market

Melita Cable is planning to launch a fully fledged telephony service next year, CEO Juanito Camilleri said yesterday, adding that the company intends to be another fixed telephony operator.

Prof. Camilleri was speaking at a press event in which he also announced the launch of new channel packages from January 1, following a "tremendous" year for the company which saw its introduction of the first digital TV platform and a VoIP service which was the first of its kind.

Last June Melita had launched Hello, a service aimed at enabling its cable and internet subscribers to benefit from low-cost international calls and free unlimited local calls made on the network.

In his review of 2005 at the Hotel Juliani, the newly appointed CEO said the growth of the analogue cable TV business had been maintained, with over 1,000 new subscribers, despite the launch of digital TV which was seeing more than 900 new subscribers per month.

Melita has also consolidated its position as the leading broadband Internet provider in Malta, reaching the milestone of 20,000 subscribers last month, he said.

Onvol was the Internet provider of 50 per cent of Maltese homes, competing with another 17 ISPs.

The repackaged TV programming line-up would change the current channel packages from four analogue and a single digital tier to three analogue and two digital tiers.

The new packages - one digital and one analogue - include respectively Melita Active at Lm7 per month, and Melita Value at Lm5 per month.

They will replace the analogue Entry and Basic packages and provide "high-quality content at affordable prices", said Melita head of sales and marketing Franco de Gabriele.

Subscribers can enjoy Melita TV services starting from Lm3.33 per month for reception to Lm12.50 for 69 digital TV channels, with the Family pack being reduced to Lm11.50 per month and the current Melita Connect package from Lm13 to Lm12.50.

The price reduction in Melita Connect should serve to encourage customers to upgrade their analogue package, Mr de Gabriele said. More incentives to switch to Melita Connect included the chance to win a trip to LA, courtesy of E! Entertainment TV, if this is done before January 15.

Prof. Camilleri stressed the fact that programming sometimes had to change because it depended on the rights owners, for whom Malta was often considered to be too limited a market.

"Sometimes, certain rights are simply no longer available to Malta," he said, adding that prices could also be prohibitive.

"Given its small size, we sometimes have to battle for attention, let alone to seal a deal," Prof. Camilleri continued, painting the real picture of the situation.

He predicted that over the next couple of years the market place would be "resonating" and that "the only constant is change".

Although most of the consequences of the fluctuations in the market would be positive, there would also be some negative repercussions until liberalisation settled down.

Melita would be "competing hard" for the World Cup rights, he said. But stiff competition would mean that the costs would be higher.