New fixed line phone company rearing to go

Gozo-based Maltatel plans to offer fixed line telephony services in competition with Maltacom in the coming weeks though initially the service will be restricted to fixed to mobile and fixed to overseas calls.

Maltatel's fixed line to mobile phones rates will be 10c per minute in the case of Go Mobile and 9c per minute in the case of Vodafone, against Maltacom's 12c4 per minute.

Overseas calls will also be "competitive", with a three-minute call to the UK, for example, costing just 6c compared with Maltacom's 21c3 for the same duration.

Maltatel's general manager Mario Gatt said yesterday no precise date had been set for the start of operations but the service would definitely be launched by May.

Maltatel is one of the companies within ICM, a group of international companies providing telecommunications in 50 countries.

Mr Gatt told a news conference the company was ready to operate and technical talks with Maltacom would be starting on May 1.

He said the company will be initially using Maltacom's technology but will eventually install its own network at a cost of Lm17 million. It is also building a similar network in Greece.

ICM's presence in Malta was first established with the setting up of Call Management Ltd, set up to offer voice over internet protocol (VoIP) to local consumers.

The recently set up Maltatel Ltd has been given a licence to provide an alternative telephony service.

But since the interconnection rates as published by the Malta Communications Authority were not competitive and went against all EU legislation in this regard, the company will not be immediately offering a fixed to fixed line service, Mr Gatt said, adding that his company has made a formal complaint to the EU telecommunication director general on the matter.

He argued that according to EU legislation, once Maltacom was a dominant market player it should be offering operators wholesale rates. But the rates Maltatel was being offered were actually higher than those currently enjoyed by Maltacom's retail consumers, Mr Gatt said.

This situation, he said, would be rectified once Maltatel had its own network or when a positive decision was taken by the EU telecommunications director general.

Mr Gatt said that as a way of promoting its services, Maltatel will be giving the first 1,500 subscribers who pay a one-time Lm5 connection fee and spend Lm20 on telephony, a four-day holiday to Paris for Lm194.

The company will also be giving Lm1 from every Lm5 connection fee to either Caritas, the Eden Foundation, the Ursuline nuns, the Arka Foundation, the Oasi Foundation or Id-Dar tal-Providenza, according to the subscriber's choice.

Mr Gatt said that next month the ICM Group is to start operating a call centre from Gozo and it would be employing 80 people working round the clock.

He said that while Maltatel was paying Lm12 per cubic metre for its factory at the Xewkija industrial estate, other companies were only paying Lm1 per cubic metre. He called for the situation to be rectified.

Mr Gatt said a number of ministers and MPs from both sides of the House were invited for yesterday's news conference but none turned up. He said he viewed this as a lack of interest in Maltatel's investment.