People are making shorter but more frequent mobile phone calls, sending fewer SMSs and using a lot more data, according to a breakdown of mobile phone habits by the Malta Communications Authority.

Its annual report explored how people are using their mobile phones and suggested an increasing reliance on their data-based services, social media or platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to communicate.

The average person made 755 calls, spent 29 hours talking on their mobile phone and sent 232 text messages in 2022, all while using some 120 gigabytes of data. 

While 29 hours - or 1,744 minutes - on phone calls might sound like a lot, it is a "slight decrease" on last year, indicating a "potential shift in calling patterns among mobile users", the report said.

"A notable insight shows a preference for shorter but more frequent calls among users," its authors said.

This suggests "individuals may be relying more on alternative communication methods or utilising data-based services for voice communication".

However it said that while the decline in call minutes indicates changing preferences, voice calls still play a significant role in mobile usage.

The same could not be said for SMSs.

Their use saw a "significant decline" of 12.8%, which the MCA attributed to the popularity of instant messaging and social media platforms. 

Demand for mobile data surges

The report showed a huge surge in the use of mobile data, which it said was "primarily driven" by people's desire to "access video content, messaging apps, social media platforms, and news portals".

Between 2021 and 2022, the overall consumption of mobile broadband data shot up by almost 30 million GBs or roughly 61%.

On an individual level, the average user went from using 77GB to 120GB of mobile data per year. 

The study also found that as mobile plans continue to grow, so does the demand for mobile data, fuelled by the use of what the MCA calls “over-the-top services”. This generally refers to any video or streaming media users access through an internet connection like YouTube or Netflix. 

The number of new mobile telephony subscriptions increased by 8% for a total of 701,762 by the end of 2022. 

Over half of all subscriptions were pre-paid, however, this section experienced a 2.3% decrease. Post-paid or pay monthly subscriptions experienced a year-on increase of 13.1%. 

In terms of operators, Epic holds the largest share in the mobile market with 39.6% followed by GO with 35.7% and Melita maintaining a strong presence with 24.6%. 

Internet prices still above EU levels

While broadband prices in Malta have continued to decline since 2018, reaching a low of €0.45 per Mbps last year, the MCA said that they have still not reached EU prices and remain higher than the EU average.

In fact, the average revenue per user for fixed broadband services increased by 11.3% last year reaching €249.30. 

This shows that while the price of an internet connection has gone down, the fees that the average user is paying for services to broadband companies have gone up. 

The lion’s share of the market is taken up by GO which provides 49.5% of internet connections in Malta, with Melita hot on its heels with 47.3%. Epic remains a relatively small player in the home internet market, taking up 3.2% of subscriptions.

Landline phone calls down 

While subscriptions for fixed telephone lines experienced a mild increase last year, the total number of minutes people spent communicating through a landline phone was down by 27%, the report found. 

Some 85% of all fixed lines were acquired through a bundle package that included mobile, broadband and paid TV services. Overall there was a decline of 22% in calls made through a landline. 

On an individual level, the average landline user went from making 62 to 48 calls a year, decreasing from an average of 259 minutes to 189 minutes per year. 

As a result, this impacted the revenue generated from users, which saw a sharp decline from €129.37 to €97 on average per user. 

More demand for IPTV as digital terrestrial plummets 

When it comes to television subscriptions, demand for IPTV services continued to experience a healthy increase, while those for digital terrestrial declined significantly. 

There were over 70,000 IPTV subscriptions at the end of last year, with the market enjoying a 7.9% increase in demand. 

Conversely, digital terrestrial TV plummeted to just 1,534 subscriptions, representing a decline of 43.5%. 

This, the MCA said, could largely be attributed to GO notifying clients that it planned to terminate its digital terrestrial service, effectively putting an end to its users being able to access free-to-air channels. The government later announced that it would be retaining aerial transmission itself.