Update July 2000: Malta

1. Introduction

Malta, being a candidate country to join the European Union, is moving at a steady pace on its way to restructure its industry and economy and is expectedly preparing its information society legislative framework to cope with the rapidly evolving information society services market. This update will give an outline of related developments in this field.

2. Legislative framework

The March-June quarter of year 2000 brought with it a number of expected evolutions to the information society in Malta.

Even though there were no significant developments in the first quarter, public statements made by government officials clearly indicated that efforts were being made to create the necessary mechanism and framework to foster information society. In fact, the results of these efforts brought about the publication of the new Telecommunications Services Regulations Act, and a white paper on the legislative framework for information practices comprising draft bills on:

• Electronic Commerce,
• Data Protection,
• Computer Misuse.

The Telecommunications Services Regulations Act is being discussed in parliament while the closing date for comments on the white paper regulating Information Practices was the 30th of June 2000. It is expected that the draft bills concerning information practices be submitted to the House of Representatives before the latter breaks for the summer recess.

3. The marketplace

During the second quarter of year 2000, the Chairman of Maltacom p.l.c. announced the signing of a contract between a subsidiary company, MobIsle Telecommunications Limited and Nortel for the provision of a turnkey solution for the setting up a DCS 1800 mobile phone network. The service has been branded as ‘Go Mobile’ and is expected to be launched towards the end of this year. This will be the second mobile service operator in the country.

Datastream Limited, another subsidiary of Maltacom, started a pilot project aimed at providing faster data links to subscribers using Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Loop (ADSL) technology. In a recent announcement, the company stated that they had already connected about 200 subscribers who were interested in taking part in this pilot project. Subscribers to this service will be connected with an ‘always on’ connection to the Internet or any other computer network at speeds ranging from 8 megabits per second to about 2 megabits per second depending on the distance between the subscriber and the closest network access point. This new service is expected to be launched towards the end of year 2000.

Terranet Limited that forms part of the Maltacom group of companies, responsible for Internet access and for the provision of content on the Internet has launched the first Maltese portal site called ‘di-ve’. They are also providing teletext services, branded as DI-VE TEXT, in collaboration with the Public Broadcasting Services Limited, the national broadcasting company.

On the other hand, Melita Cable TV, who has enjoyed a monopolistic position since now, continued to upgrade it distribution network based on a hybrid optical fibre and coaxial cable system, announced that it has already completed 75% of its network upgrade. This upgrade is aimed at providing interactive data services such as access to the Internet.

Further developments in this field are expected throughout the rest of this year.

4. Key contact persons

The following major changes have been made:

• Mr. David Spiteri Gingell, has been appointed by government as Chief Executive Officer of the Malta Information Technology and Training Services Limited (M.I.T.T.S.).
• Mr. Stephen Muscat has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Maltacom p.l.c. He has also been elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the same company during the last annual general meeting held towards the beginning of March 2000 by the private shareholders of the company.