Consumer satisfaction with phone, internet and TV service bundles has dropped significantly in the past years, a survey by the communications regulator has found.
But while a growing number of people are less than impressed by the quality of service they receive, they are reluctant to switch telecom providers because they believe all local firms offer similar service levels.
The survey, published by the Malta Communications Authority on Monday, found that 69 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with the quality of the phone, TV and internet service bundle.
While that might sound positive, it represents a drop of 20 percentage points when compared to the 89 per cent satisfaction rate registered in 2020.
The share of respondents who held a neutral view about their bundle’s quality was also up, from nine per cent in 2020 to 24 per cent in 2023.
EMCS Advisory Limited carried out the MCA survey between June and July 2023. Surveyors interviewed 806 respondents over the phone through the use of telephone-computer-assisted interviewing (CATI).
Interviews were distributed among Malta’s six geographic regions and respondents were stratified by age and socio-economic category. The survey has a margin of error of +/-3.45% at a 95% confidence interval.
The main irritant for consumers was, by far, unreliable service. 52 per cent of respondents cited ‘frequent disconnection’ as the reason they were not entirely satisfied with their bundle service, followed by 14 per cent citing bad customer service (up from 6 per cent in 2020).
Respondents’ complaints of service interruptions were backed by their behaviour: 65 per cent said they had reported a service disruption in the past year, and 49 per cent said they reported more than two. Both those figures were up when compared to 2020.
Satisfaction with how telecoms firms handled customer complaints about service disruptions also dropped significantly. In 2020, 86 per cent said their issues were resolved satisfactorily. In 2023, just 54 per cent said so.
While a growing number of consumers say they are unimpressed by their telecom service provider’s offering, almost three in every four respondents said they have no intention of switching providers.
This sentiment appears to be linked to the perception that all providers are pretty much the same: 59 per cent said other service providers are of similar quality, up significantly from 17 per cent in 2020.
Would you switch providers?
When asked if they would switch provider if their monthly bill went up by 10 per cent, 29 per cent said yes, 27 per cent said no, and 25 per cent said they would downgrade to a cheaper bundle with the same provider.
Consumers are still by-and-large unaware of the costs they face if they terminate their bundle contract before it expires: 83 per cent said they did not know about their termination costs.
Three telecoms providers operate in Malta. All three offer phone, internet and TV service bundles.
Two of them – Melita and GO – have most of the bundle market, with a third and newer operator, Epic, having a smaller share.
More than half of consumers say they opt for bundle services to save money, with a third saying they do it out of convenience. Internet service is the biggest draw (44 per cent), followed by TV (22 per cent).
However, the share of respondents who said they signed up for a bundle to secure mobile phone service was up significantly (17 per cent versus four per cent in 2020).
More than one in every three respondents said they spend between €30 and €49.99 a month on their bundle service. A further 26 per cent said they spend between