Mobile telephony subscriptions are continuing to rise, but the number of SMS messages is declining, figures issued by the Malta Communications Authority show.

At the end of September 2015, mobile subscriptions stood at 567,607, meaning that there were 1.3 active subscriptions for every person in Malta.

The number of calls and minutes on mobile increased by 5% (increase of 6.7 million) and 9.4% (increase of 17.1 million) respectively.

"Not only are mobile subscribers making more calls, but they are spending more time per call," the authority said.

In contrast, the number of SMSs recorded in the third quarter of 2015 was down by 7.5% (or by 9.5 million) compared to the same period a year earlier.

the number of SMSs recorded in the third quarter of 2015 was down by 7.5% (or by 9.5 million) compared to the same period a year earlier

"Looking at this decline in SMS traffic and the increase in the number of calls and minutes, it is evident that subscribers are shifting towards voice calling, as opposed to SMSing. This is possibly due to a fall in the price of placing a mobile call or more advantageous offers by local operators, in terms of, for example, improved minute allowances."

Post-paid subscriptions  increased by 10% during the period under review, as opposed to a fall of 2% in pre-paid subscriptions.

With the rising popularity of mobile voice telephony services, the fixed telephony sector recorded further declines both in terms of subscriptions and usage. These subscriptions fell by 1.5%, whilst voice traffic volumes were down by 5% (almost 2 million) in terms of voice calls and by 4.2% (almost 6 million) in terms of voice call minutes.  

Fixed broadband

Total subscriptions for broadband increased by 6.7%, on the back of higher take-up of products with download speeds of 30Mbps or higher.

Subscriptions to broadband services with download speeds lower than 30Mbps declined by 7.3%. This decline was however offset by significant increases in subscriptions to higher broadband speeds.

Subscriptions to broadband services with speeds of 30Mbps but less than 100Mbps increased by 17.9% (14,228 subscriptions), however the highest increase was recorded in subscriptions to speeds of 100Mbps or more, which registered a growth of 109.6% (from 1,056 subscriptions at the end of September 2014 to 2,213 at the end of September 2015).