Malta’s telecom sector is among the most advanced in Europe, with high mobile and broadband penetration rates and a strategy in place to capitalise on infrastructure to develop e-commerce opportunities.
The sector has also been stimulated by regulatory measures designed to reduce consumer prices and develop a national FttP network. Interest in Maltese telcos continues to attract investors, with Melita having been sold to EQT in late 2019 and (subject to regulatory approval) Vodafone Malta having been sold to Monaco Telecom.
There has also been some encouragement to increase market competition and so reduce prices for end-users. This led to the 2019 Virtual Unbundled Local Access (VULA) agreement between GO and Vodafone Malta by which Vodafone was able to enter the fixed broadband market using GO’s fibre infrastructure.
Melita provides a national gigabit service via its fibre and DOCSIS3.1 networks, while GO is currently investing in an extensive FttP network, which covered about 90,000 premises by late 2019. The company is investing €100 million to develop LTE and fibre through to 2023, while in early 2020 it also began work on a new submarine cable system linking to France and Egypt.
Key developments:
Vodafone Group sells its Maltese unit to Monaco Telecom;
Melita launches 5G-ready network; completes project to deliver fibre networks to public schools;
Melita providing 1Gb/s broadband service nationally;
GO commits to €100 million five-year investment in fibre infrastructure, announces plans for submarine cable system linking to Marseille and Egypt;
Regulator restarts 800MHz auction process;
Government supporting a national FttP network;
Report update includes the regulator's market data updates to June 2019, telcos' operating data to Q3 2019, Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, recent market developments.
Companies mentioned in this report:
Vodafone Malta, GO, Melita, SIS, Ozone, Redtouch Fone, PING.
Table of Contents
Key statistics
Regional European Market Comparison
Europe Telecom Maturity Index by tier
Market Leaders
Market Challengers
Market Emergents
TMI versus GDP
Mobile and mobile broadband penetration
Fixed versus mobile broadband penetration
Country overview
Telecommunications market
Regulatory environment
Historical overview
Regulatory authority
Fixed-line developments
Digital Society initiatives
Telecom sector liberalisation
Privatisation
Interconnect
Access
Carrier PreSelection (CPS)
Number Portability (NP)
Mobile network developments
Roaming
Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs)
Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
Spectrum regulations and spectrum auctions
Spectrum auctions
Mobile market
Market analysis
Mobile statistics
Mobile infrastructure
5G
4G (LTE)
3G
Other infrastructure developments
NB-IoT
Mobile data
Short Message Service (SMS)
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
Mobile broadband
Major mobile operators
Vodafone Malta
GO Mobile
Melita Mobile
MVNOs
Fixed-line broadband market
Introduction and statistical overview
Broadband statistics
Fixed-line broadband technologies
Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) netorks
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks
Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks
Other fixed broadband services
Satellite
Wireless broadband
Fixed network operators
GO
Melita
Telecommunications infrastructure
Overview of the national telecom network
International infrastructure
VoIP
Wholesale
Data centres
Appendix – Historic data
Related reports
List of Tables
Table 1 – Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities - Malta – 2019 (e)
Table 2 – Change in the number of fixed numbers ported – 2007 – 2019
Table 3 – Growth in roaming voice and data traffic (outbound) – 2014 – 2019
Table 4 – Change in the number of mobile number portings – 2006 – 2019
Table 5 – Change in blended mobile ARPU – 2013 – 2019
Table 6 – Growth in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration – 2009 – 2024
Table 7 – Change in mobile market share of subscribers by operator – 2007 – 2019
Table 8 – Growth in mobile voice traffic – 2009 – 2019
Table 9 – Change in the proportion of contract and prepaid subscribers, all operators – 2009 – 2019
Table 10 – Change in the number of prepaid and contract subscribers – 2009 – 2019
Table 11 – Decline in the volume of SMS messages sent – 2009 – 2019
Table 12 – Change in the number of MMS messages sent – 2009 – 2019
Table 13 – Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers and penetration – 2009 – 2024
Table 14 – Growth in mobile data traffic – 2015 – 2019
Table 15 – Change in the number of Vodafone Malta’s mobile subscribers – 2005 – 2019
Table 16 – Growth in the number of GO Mobile’ mobile subscribers – 2009 – 2019
Table 17 – Growth in the number of Melita’s mobile subscribers – 2009 – 2019