The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a greater demand for fast and ultra-fast fixed broadband, larger volumes of mobile voice and bigger mobile data consumption, according to a preliminary review for the year by the Malta Communications Authority.

Data volumes consumed for 2020 totalled 34,088 million Mb, up by a staggering 141% on the previous year. This excludes consumption related to connectivity over Wi-Fi. Alongside this development, local mobile operators saw voice minute volumes jump by 14% year-on-year. 

The fixed broadband segment saw the biggest rise in subscriptions year-on-year, up by 10,906 in the 12-month period to the end of December. Significantly, the rising trend in bundle take-up persists, with 93% of all fixed broadband purchases occurred in a bundle setting. 

MCA said consumers tend to purchase triple-play packaged products, involving fixed broadband, fixed telephony and pay-TV services, induced by the selling strategies implemented by local telecoms providers. 

The authority said there is continued pressure on local consumers to purchase the fixed telephony service in the bundle, notwithstanding the fact that they keep using it less. In fact, year-on-year, the number of fixed telephony subscriptions was up by 2,618 when fixed voice minute consumption was 6.6% down.

The television segment saw a rise of 1,856 subscriptions in the 12-month period to the end of 2020. 

The postal sector continued to experience a general drop in activity, the rate of which appears to have been accelerated in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.

Comparing mail volumes in 2020 to those recorded in the previous year, a sharp drop is observed for single-piece letter mail, bulk mail, as well as registered mail. The last quarter of 2020 experienced similar tendencies when compared to the three previous months except for letter mail, which rose. Parcel mail registered a further rise, seemingly accentuated by COVID-19 restrictions. 

Fixed broadband

The total number of fixed-broadband subscriptions amounted to 213,419 by the end of 2020. This figure is up by 10,906 compared to the corresponding figure a year earlier, equivalent to a 5.4% rise in subscriptions. 

This upward trend coincides with a significant rise in remote working and other activities carried out online, the MCA noted.

The rate of broadband subscriptions within a bundle offer rose further to more than 93% by the end of the reporting period, with more subscriptions supporting fast and ultra-fast speeds.

The number of connections supporting download speeds of 100Mbps or more rose by seven percentage points from 46% at the end of 2019 to 53% at the end of 2020. 

Subscriptions via the FTTH network, which includes fiber-optic access solutions designed for residential deployments, increased by 8,454 (or by 30.5%) in the 12-month period under review, with this platform accounting for 16.9% of all fixed broadband subscriptions by end of year. 

Cable subscriptions increased by 4,253 (or by 4.3%), accounting for 48.3% of all subscriptions at the end of the reporting period.

Meanwhile, the number of fixed wireless broadband subscriptions was up by 2,438 (21%), to end the year representing 6.6% of all fixed broadband subscriptions.

In contrast, the number of copper DSL subscriptions was down by 4,239 (6.6%) year-on-year. This segment represented 28.2% of all fixed broadband subscriptions by end of year. 

Fixed broadband average revenue per user (ARPU) was down from €240.98 in 2019 to €227.05 in 2020. This trend contrasts with the rising ARPU for fixed telephony and pay-TV. 

Mobile telephony

The mobile telephony segment recorded marginally lower subscriptions at the end of 2020 compared to 12 months earlier. However, the mobile segment bounced back significantly since Q2 of 2020 and figures by the end of the year are just 1,263 lower than that recorded at the end of 2019. 

The overall change in subscriptions is a result of a drop of 15,738 pre-paid subscriptions year-on-year, compared to a rise of 14,475 post-paid subscriptions in the 12-month period to the end of December 2020. 

Domestic mobile traffic volumes rose rapidly during 2020, with voice minutes up by 14% compared to volumes recorded in the preceding year, whilst mobile data Mb consumption shot up by 141% respectively. 

Meanwhile, SMS and MMS volumes fell drastically year-on-year, by 24% and 31% respectively. 

Roaming voice minutes were down by 45% and roaming data volumes by 47%. 
Mobile telephony ARPU was down to €170.91 in 2020 compared to €177.43 a year earlier. 

Pay TV

The pay TV segment maintained an upward trend in take-up for the year in review. Year-on-year, subscriptions were up by 1,856 (1.1%). Close to 81% of all pay-TV subscriptions at the end of 2020 were purchased in a bundle. 

Pay TV ARPU was significantly up from €178.11 in 2019 to €193.83 in 2020. 

Fixed telephony 

The fixed telephony segment saw a rise of 2,618 subscriptions (an uptick of 1%) in the 12-month period under review to reach a total of 259,456 subscriptions by the end of December 2020. A total 83% of all fixed telephony subscriptions were purchased in a bundle alongside other telecom services. 

While the number of subscriptions was up year-on-year, voice call and minute volumes were down. 

The number of fixed telephony voice calls was down by 21.4% whereas the number of outgoing fixed voice call minutes fell by 6.6%. 

The MCA said these trends underscore the notion that take-up of the fixed telephony service is effectively driven by the commercial stance of local service providers to sell different telecom services in a bundle alongside fixed broadband. 

Year-on-year, an increase of 4,585 post-paid subscriptions outweighed a decline observed in the pre-paid and enhanced subscriber base, which saw the number of clients go down by 1,832 and 135 respectively. 
Fixed telephony ARPU for 2020 totalled €129.22, up by 4.5% from €123.61 for the previous year. 

Post 

The MCA said the pandemic accelerated declines in postal mail volumes. A year-on-year comparison shows that single-piece letter mail volumes were down by 23.7%, registered mail volumes were down by 4.7% and bulk mail volumes were down by 3.5%. In contrast, parcel mail volumes were up by 21.4%, most likely as a result of an increase in online retail transactions. 

Mail volumes outside the scope of the universal service were down by 1.4% year-on-year, as the 14.2% increase in volumes for bigger sized parcel mail items (2kgs to 31.5kgs) was not sufficient to outweigh the 10.5% decline in mail volumes for mail items weighing less than 2kgs, the MCA said.