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Here are the Archived entries for 2007
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| MCA publishes decision for fixed interconnection rates
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Wednesday, 17 January 2007
As most of you already know, the amount of money operators have to pay each other when passing a call from one to the other, is regulated by MCA (Malta Communications Authority). Occasionally, MCA publishes a document that dictates what these rates should be for the next year or so. This is done for both mobile and fixed operators. In fact, mobile interconnection cost is always getting lower, however, we have never yet seen any of these cost savings passed on to the end user.
A few days ago, MCA published the new rates for fixed telephony interconnection for 2007. Basically, this affects mostly Hello (Melita Cable), and Sky Telecom. In 2006, the rates were 0.81c/min during peak hours, 0.559c/min during off-peak, and 0.214c/min during the night. Although on first glance these rates seem to be low, it is worth noting that a Maltacom-Maltacom call during off-peak or night rates, was being charged at a lower rate than the interconnection rate, which is supposed to be wholesale! The new rates make a bit more sense. They are at 0.544c/min during peak, 0.376c/min off-peak, and 0.144c/min during the night (and weekends). Therefore, operators like Hello can afford to drive their rates even lower if they want to, or maybe offer lower rental fees... or simply keep the money they save all for themselves, which in most cases is what happens.
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 January 2007 ) |
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| Melita Cable offers "Hello" for Lm1/month
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Sunday, 21 January 2007
As probably all of you already know, Maltacom has been offering a package where one can get the Multiplus Free+ digital TV package for Lm1/month (normal price) but without having to pay anything for the receiver set top box. The catch? Well, one must agree to keep the Maltacom telephone line along with the Multiplus package for a minimum of 2 years. Melita Cable today announced something quite similar. All their Cable TV subscribers can opt to get a Hello telephone line for just Lm1/month. In this case, however, there's more than one small catch, so I'm going to mention them all. First, similar to Maltacom's case, one must agree to keep the Hello service along with the current TV package (Melita Digital subscribers cannot downgrade to analogue) for 2 years. Also, Lm24 must be paid in advance, along with Lm4.95 installation fee. That's not all however. Unlike the other Hello packages, this new package, which by the way is named "Hello 1", does not contain any free minutes to other local networks. Also, the call rates are different. Basically, the rates are: free to other Hello numbers, 1c/min to other landline networks (Maltacom and Sky), and 12c5/min to mobile networks. These rates apply 24x7. Therefore, there are no peak, off-peak, and night rates. Just that.
Read on.
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 24 January 2007 ) |
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| Gizmocall.com gives 10 free minutes daily
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Monday, 12 February 2007
Gizmoproject.com and its mother company SIPphone.com
have been around for quite some time, and are considered by some as the
only real competitor to Skype. It appears that competition in this
market is bringing us some good stuff, possibly better than anyone
expected. So what's new? The Gizmo guys have now boosted their offers
by giving you 10 minutes of free telephony daily, with a maximum of 30 minutes per week. These are not available from the downloadable
Gizmo Project application, but from a flash-based phone. In order to
access this, visit gizmocall.com
and download the necessary plugin. Once the plugin is up and running
you may then start making calls. Initially, you will be given 5 free
minutes daily, but if you register (only 4 fields to fill up!), your
free credits will be doubled to 10 minutes daily. The best thing is
that you may use your free minutes for whatever you like, including
calls to mobile phones. Let's just hope it gets more polished as time
goes by since as it is at the moment, it crashed a number of times
during our rigorous testing.
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 12 February 2007 ) |
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| Maltacom officially acquires Multiplus
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Monday, 19 February 2007
After 4 months of speculation, which started during the IT&T fair of October 2006, when Maltacom and Multiplus joined forces and created a joint offer, Maltacom has finally offically bought 100% of the shares in Multiplus Ltd. This latest move, puts Maltacom in direct competition with Melita Cable Television services. Considering the vast experience Maltacom has in the telecoms market, this move will hopefully bring better services from Multiplus, which until now seems to have focused mainly on the low-end market. In the press release, Maltacom stated that "Mr Kay [(Maltacom's CEO)] said that in the coming weeks Maltacom will be rolling out its plans to enhance the level of digital TV service offered through the DTTV platform, both in terms of content as well as service provision. Maltacom will ensure that it will offer the best level of digital TV service in Malta"
It is worth noting that now, Maltacom is the only company that can offer quad-play packages without having to deal with other companies: fixed telephony, mobile telephony, broadband, and TV.
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 17 April 2007 ) |
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| Possibility of a third submarine fibre optic cable in sight
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Monday, 26 February 2007
On Thursday, 22nd February (2007), Alcatel Lucent launched their new branch in Malta. As what often happens in such cases, Minister Austin Gatt was present to make a speech, which in this case proved to be quite useful to give us an idea of what we may expect from this company. In his speech, he commented on the current sorry state of our bandwidth which comes from two operators who both have a cable landing on the same spot in Sicily. Alcatel Lucent seems to have a plan to pass a new cable directly from some central Internet hub in Europe, and according to the Minister, the Government is looking at the possibility of providing the capital investment required for this project.
The most interesting fact about this potential new link, however, is that it would not just be providing Malta with International bandwith, but a second cable would then go down to northern Africa in order to supply bandwidth to the region. If this project ever gets done, for the first time we won't just be begging at the end of the line, but Malta will actually become a bandwidth provider for other countries, which definitely would result in much better economies of scale.
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 26 February 2007 ) |
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| New Maltese Information Security site launched
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Tuesday, 27 February 2007
Information Technology has taken over a large part of our lives these days, where it is almost impossible not having to do with any form of computer almost every day. However, one very important aspect tends to be overlooked by most people: Security. How do you trust your computer, the software you use, your service providers, and your knowledge about what can possibly happen and how to avoid it? Maltainfosec.org is a new security site with a local perspective. The following is quoted from the team:
The aim of the group is to create a bigger awareness on the island for the need of information security in various areas of computing and to create a local community of individuals with unique experiences who are ready to share information with other persons in need of professional advice.
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 27 February 2007 ) |
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| Maltanet upgrades bandwidth limits
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Monday, 12 March 2007
Good news for all Maltanet subscribers as the bandwidth limits are now less restrictive for everyone. The 1GB accounts were upgraded to 2GB, 8GB to 10GB, 12GB to 16GB and 20GB to 30GB monthly. Apart from that, starting from tonight, all the bandwidth you use between 12-6am will not be counted, just like OnVOL have been doing for quite a long time.
This once again puts Maltanet one step ahead of its main competitor - OnVOL. For Lm20 with Maltanet one gets 30GB of monthly download. With OnVol, for 47c more than that, one gets a third of that bandwidth allowance. However, to be fair, with OnVOL one does not have to pay any line rental, and can also get a "Hello" subscription for free. On the other hand, with Maltanet, one must pay for a line rental at Lm2.57 monthly - even if all that is required is an ADSL connection.
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 09 April 2007 ) |
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| MCA refuses request for further extension to WiMAX rollout
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Monday, 02 April 2007
Most of you probably already know that last year, MCA gave the ISPs that have a license for wireless Internet on the 3.5GHz band a 6 month extension to their obligation to roll out their networks. This is because at the time, there were developments that led to the belief that 802.16e (mobile WiMAX) was just around the corner, and that if a short extension was given, the service providers would be able to adopt the new standard and be able to offer mobility rather than just fixed wireless broadband.
Unfortunately, however, the technology didn't advance as quickly as expected, and mobile WiMAX is still yet to see the light of day. Therefore, the service providers requested a further extension in order to wait for the new standard. However, the Malta Communications Authority refused this request on the grounds that no one knows when this new standard will be available, and apart from that, when the licenses were fist granted, they were granted for fixed wireless broadband. Mobility is just something extra. However, considering the fact that the deadline in order to have 50% of Malta covered was supposed to be this month (April), which is now impossible to achieve, MCA gave a 3 month extension for such coverage to be achieved. However, no further extensions for the 90% and 99% coverage were given.
Whether this is to be considered as good or bad news is up to you... This actually means that for the forseeable future, we will have to depend on GPRS/UMTS for mobile Internet access. On the other hand, this also means that competion for ADSL and cable Internet should be available in less than 3 months. Meanwhile, Vodafone has already began doing some field tests in WiMAX, while Go Mobile is testing UMTS which should launch this month.
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 02 April 2007 ) |
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| OnVOL improves prices and modifies services
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Monday, 09 April 2007
Last month's upgrade of Maltanet's download limits had an affect on other ISP's services too. NextWeb were the first to modify their download limits to match those of Maltanet, although they didn't create something similar to Maltanet's "free nights" where one can download as much as possible at night without being charged anything from the monthly limit.
OnVOL has also made some changes. As from today, OnVOL Sonic (4092/256 10GB monthly limit), has been reduced by Lm4.52 - from Lm20.47 to Lm15.95. Apart from that, the time during which one can download for free during the night has been extended by 2 hours, and now starts at 11pm and ends at 7pm. No monthly limit upgrade has been announced yet, however. When considering the prices of OnVOL, it is always worth remembering that with OnVOL, one can totally eliminate the cost of Maltacom's line rental at Lm2.57 - not only because cable internet does not require a phone line unlike ADSL, but also because with OnVOL, one gets free subscription to "hello 100". Also, as from today, the "hello 100" package is also given for free to OnVOL Ultralite subscribers.
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 09 April 2007 ) |
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| Maltacom forced to pay reciprocal call termination rates to Melita
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Saturday, 14 April 2007
When a phone call has to go between different operators, the operator from which the call originates has to pay the operator on which the call terminates for the service. That is if a "Hello" subscriber makes a telephone call to a Maltacom subscriber, Melita has to pay Maltacom a rate which is regulated by MCA. Back in January, we reported the latest rates that are being charged. The fact that operators pay each other is a widely used practice, however, up till now, Melita was paying Maltacom for call termination, while Maltacom was refusing Melita's request that Maltacom pays Melita the same rate that Melita pays Maltacom. It is worth mentioning here that where there are large operators who almost have a monopoly in the market, the telecoms regulators state that interconnection rates must be calculated on a cost accounting and separation method, where the operator must present the costs for every segment of its network operations in order to extract the real wholesale cost of how much terminating a call really costs. This is what is being done in the case of Maltacom. However, since Melita's "hello" is in its infancy, and only a small number of people are actually using their services, MCA does not require them to use this same method, but only to offer fair and reasonable interconnection rates that cannot be higher than those charged by Maltacom.
Read on...
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 14 April 2007 ) |
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| REALLY cheaper roaming rates in the EU by next Summer
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Saturday, 14 April 2007
In the last few weeks, Vodafone and Go Mobile announced cheaper roaming rates. Maltameter considered this as marketing and PR crap, and didn't bother publish an article on these developments. Why? Because we knew we'll have something bigger to offer you in a matter of days.
We have been following the developments in mobile roaming rates within the EU for quite a long time, and everything appeared from the start that the EU will eventually force the mobile operators to push their roaming prices much lower than what they are at the moment. As one can imagine, almost all operators were against such price cuts from the start. On Thursday, 12th April, the European Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) voted in favour of a final decision to force a price cap on roaming rates. The price caps are to be set at €0.40 for outgoing, and €0.15 for incoming calls, exc. VAT. That means only up to 20c3 to make a call and 7c6 to receive one when you're in another EU country (prices in Maltese Lira with 18% VAT)... not much worse than a local call when you're in Malta!
ITRE is hoping to get these rates enforced by next Summer, however, more work has yet to be done. This includes a final vote by the EU Parliament which is to be taken on the plenary meeting on 10th May, and a meeting between the national telecom ministers on 7th June.
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 14 April 2007 ) |
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| Digi B Network to start DAB+ digital radio rollout by the end of 2007
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Saturday, 14 April 2007
Back in March 2006, MCA granted a licence to Digi B Network to build
and operate a Terrestrial DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) radio
network in the Maltese territory using 4 frequencies for which Digi B
was the highest bidder. In simpler words, Digi B was granted the rights
to operate a digital radio network covering the Maltese islands. Since
then, we haven't heard much from this company, but that doesn't mean
that nothing has been going on in the background. To start with, the
original DAB standard uses MPEG-2. As most technical people here
already know, this is now a very old codec which is less efficient than
the MP3 codec which most of us use every day. MP3 is in turn less
efficient than newer codecs which include AAC and AAC+. Up till now,
the UK has been the country which supported DAB the most, and has the
widest listener base. However, with bandwidth being limited, and more
radio stations wanting to transmit on the DAB platform, broadcasters
started decreasing the bitrate for all channels in order to squeeze
more. Since MPEG-2 requires quite a high bitrate to sound good, this
resulted in low quality sound, with most people claiming that DAB
sounds worse than FM.
Read on...
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 19 April 2007 ) |
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| Maltameter is 1 year old!
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Thursday, 19 April 2007
It was exactly one year ago when Maltameter.com was launched. I would like to take this opportunity, as webmaster and founder of this project to thank everyone who helped in maintaining Maltameter by giving ideas, sumitting news, giving us information, etc. In other words - all those who helped Maltameter improve.
In the next few months, you might be seeing some changes to the site. Up till now, the main focus of Maltameter was telecommunication. We would like to expand the potential of this site by broadening the scope. Unfortunately, since this site is maintained on a voluntary basis (no, we don't make money), it is sometimes impossible to keep up with all the developments in different markets as this requires futher research which tends to take much more time that one might think. Therefore, if you who are reading this article are interested in a tech-related subject which can be included in Maltameter, please contact us telling us who you are, your intererests, and what you think you can add to this site, and if you pass our criteria, we'll welcome you to our team (eventually).
One final request I would like to make to everyone reading this article is to try to be more interactive. The original idea of Maltameter was to give the power to the people. Every part of the site was intended to allow the participation of the public - we allow comments on every article, we have a forum, it's even possible to submit news (which will be reviewed), etc. Those tools were meant to be used, however, for some reason, their use up till now was very minimal. It's impossible that the readers don't have their own opinion... so why is it so hard to express it publicly? We want to spark discussion. Don't worry, do criticise us! Just keep it friendly :)
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 19 April 2007 ) |
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| Go Mobile launches 3G
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Thursday, 26 April 2007
Since last Monday, a number of Go Mobile customers owning 3G handsets were able to connect to Go Mobile's 3G network. No word came from Go Mobile then, and everything was unofficial. However, today, Thursday 26th April, Go Mobile's 3G UMTS/HSDPA network was officially launched. It is worth noting that Vodafone launched 3G last August, however, at that time, coverage was limited to a very small part of the Maltese territory, and is still limited today. On the other side, Go Mobile launched nationwide coverage right from the start. We have tested 3G in several parts of Malta, and although outdoor coverage was great, Internet access was very unreliable indoors... in other words not good for reading our site while on the loo :) . This situation is expected to be mitigated in the coming months as more base stations are installed.
The pricing at the moment is set at 22c per minute for video calls for prepaid customers, and just 10c per minute for post-paid. Data prices are still priced at the ridiculous 3c per 60KB, which although might sound a bit reasonable, it is totally unreasonable to charge 3c every time an Internet connection is attempted. At the moment, the network is very unreliable indoors, and tends to drop, making the mobile try to reconnect a number of times per minute, and being charged 3c every time it does... Go Mobile REALLY need to address this if we are to start believing they want to offer us good value for money. We're expecting a number of price changes in the following days/weeks.. we'll just wait and see.
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 26 April 2007 ) |
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| Maltacom set to announce lower tariffs this month
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Tuesday, 08 May 2007
On this week's The Sunday Times, there's an article pointing out that Maltacom is going to announce new tariffs later on this month. No hint of what the new rates would look like was mentioned, however, it does mention that we should expect more free talk time and cheaper rates. The article also presents complaints from Maltacom against Melita Cable due to advertising that doesn't "portray the true picture", and also a commment that unlike their competitors, Maltacom had to go through MCA for approval of the new rates.
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 May 2007 ) |
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| Maltacom announces new tariff plans
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Wednesday, 16 May 2007
Last week, we reported that Maltacom was about to announce new tariffs that should offer more value to the customers. Today, the new tariffs, or to be more accurate, 'tariff plans', were announced. To start with, the current tariffs will remain unchanged unless you opt-in to one of the three new packages. The new packages are named 'Talk 200' (reminds us of 'Hello 100'), 'Free Nights & Weekends', and 'Business Talk 500'. The first two are being offered for residential customers, with the latter being offered only for business users.
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 May 2007 ) |
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| Poor download speed tops consumer complaints charts
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Sunday, 20 May 2007
MCA released a report containing statistics regarding consumer queries and complaints that they have received between January and March 2007. A whooping 45% of these complaints and queries were related to Internet access, with the other 55% distributed between post, fixed line, TV, mobile, etc. A percentage breakdown showing the issues the customers complained about, shows that 25% of all complaints were about poor download speed. The runners up were inefficient service and perceived discriminatory offers / practices, both at 20%. The document goes on by giving a detailed description of all the issues mentioned.
Such statistics make us think - are the local ISP's in general really offering the worst service quality when compared to other service providers in different areas in the communications market?
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 24 May 2007 ) |
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| EU Telecom Ministers approve new roaming rates
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Saturday, 09 June 2007
It has finally happened! 27 telecom ministers from the EU member states met in Luxembourg on Thursday and approved the decisions brought forward by the EU parliament to set a cap on the roaming rates that may be charged within the EU. Now, all that remains is for the member states to formally adopt and publish the new regulations by 29th June, and then the operators will have one month to adopt the rates to the new regulations, in other words, by the end of July.
The following are the maximum per-minute that the operators will be able to charge. As one can see, the rates are set to decrease in a 3 steps. The prices are in Eurocents, and do not include VAT.
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Maximum tariff for calls made abroad |
49 Eurocent
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46 Eurocent
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43 Eurocent
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Maximum tariff for calls received abroad |
24 Eurocent
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22 Eurocent
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19 Eurocent
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 09 June 2007 ) |
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| Maltacom is now Go
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Thursday, 14 June 2007
Since this week, we will refer to Malta's incumbent telecoms operator as Maltacom no more. This is because Maltacom Group has rebranded itself and all it's services as "Go". That means that now, what you know as Maltacom, Maltanet, Multiplus, and Go Mobile will all fall under the Go brand. Then the whole company is split as Go Mobile, Go Plus and Go Business, and Go Plus is then further split as Go Talk, Go Surf, and Go Watch, being equivalent to Maltacom, Maltanet, and Multiplus respectively.
So, from now on, it's just "Go" for all of them. All the services now form part of one central website: go.com.mt
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 14 June 2007 ) |
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| Melita Cable to launch HDTV trial
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
For the first time in Malta, Melita Cable will be launching an HDTV trial in 300 homes. For those who have been living under a rock for the past few years, HDTV stands for High Definition Television, and refers to television broadcast at higher resolution than what we are used to with standard PAL. Obviously, to be able to see the benefits of HDTV, one would need to buy a new HD screen if not already available. The trial will commence in the first week of August, and will last for 3 months. After that, we're assuming to see an official HDTV package within a short time frame.
One thing to note, although it is a bit early to start doing such comparisons, the only competition that Melita has in the TV market, Go Watch (previously Multiplus), won't be able to make a similar offer unless they will be able to get access to the 8 "unused" frequencies that they are supposed to have rights to, and even if they do, the package would still have to be limited, considering the fact that the bandwidth that they have available is much less than Melita can potentially have on their cable network, especially if they get rid of their analogue packages.
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 27 June 2007 ) |
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| ADSL upload speed doubles
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Sunday, 08 July 2007
Go have announced this week that all ADSL accounts are being upgraded from havin 256 upload speed to 512. This also affects users with other ISPs who are using ADSL. Although this doesn't have a direct affect on download speeds which most users are after, faster upload speeds are becoming more and more important. Apart from being used for P2P which most would think of when mentioning uploads, slow tedious processes such as uploading photos for printing or sending large files to friends or colleagues will now be finished in half the time. No word has yet come from the main competitor to ADSL - Melita's Onvol on whether to expect a similar upgrade.
Apart from the upload speed upgrade, users on a budget that were on a 256/256 connection will also have their download speed doubled as the connections are being upgraded to 512/512. I remember the time when 512 was the maximum speed you could get on ADSL...
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 08 July 2007 ) |
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| Go Mobile announces new data tariffs
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Sunday, 22 July 2007
Go Mobile has finally launched a number of price plans for mobile data (HDSPA, EDGE, etc.). The number of price plans available should now make 3G data more accessible to general users rather than just businesses. The data plans are as follows:
Lite Plan - Lm2.50/month - 30MB
Value Plan - Lm6.44/month - 500MB
Ultra Plan - Lm12.99/month - 2GB
Unlimited Plan - Lm19.32/month - 5GB
While we cannot help commenting on the fishily-named "Unlimited Plan" - which has a 5GB limit per month, the new tariffs are quite good and versatile. Comparing these with the plans available from Vodafone, one can see that Go Mobile are more than just a step ahead from Vodafone. The data plans currently available from Vodafone are as follows:
GPRS Bundle 1 - Lm2.50/month - 5MB
GPRS Bundle 2 - Lm7.50/month - 40MB
Vodafone Liberty - Lm19.50/month - 1GB
As usual, we hope that this will bring a new price war and drive prices down on both operators.
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 22 July 2007 ) |
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| 3rd Mobile operator coming "soon"
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Monday, 20 August 2007
Those who have been following the scene probably remember the time when there were 3 applicants for 3G mobile telephony. These three were GO Mobile, Vodafone, and 3G Telecommunications Ltd. GO and Vodafone were granted licenses, however 3G Telecommunications Ltd. wasn't granted one. After several appeals and changes within the company, finally, 3G Telecommunications Ltd. was finally granted a license. Now, the company has a time limit of 5 years to achieve 99% nationwide coverage, however, it's probably safe to assume that the network will be up and running in a much shorter timeframe since there are millions involved...
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 20 August 2007 ) |
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| Melita Cable to acquire 3G Telecommunications Ltd
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Thursday, 13 September 2007
Recently, 3G Telecommunications Ltd. were awarded the third 3G mobile license in Malta. It didn't take much time until the true goal of 3G Telecom. was made public - that to just obtain a license and then be acquired by an experienced telecoms company. Melita Cable has issued a press release in which it is stated that Melita and 3G Telecommunications Ltd. have signed a letter of intent, where if the transaction takes place, Melita will acquire 3G Telecommunications Ltd., while M/C Venture Partners, the mother company of 3G Telecoms will acquire a number of shares in Melita Cable. If this transaction takes place, Melita will finally obtain the missing link - that of mobile telephony.
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 September 2007 ) |
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| Vodafone launches unlimited 3G data offer
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Thursday, 13 September 2007
Vodafone Malta has recently announced the new Vodafone Liberty Price Plan. This new plan, which costs just Lm9.99 per month, includes a USB 3G modem and unlimited data. The portable USB modem can be connected to a laptop or PC, or else, the data plan can be used without the USB modem but with a PDA or mobile phone that supports browsing via 3G. However, bare in mind that this is not a permanent price plan, but a limited offer. Customers can apply to this offer until 31st October 2007.
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 September 2007 ) |
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| PayPal Fully Supports Malta
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Saturday, 20 October 2007
For the last few years, Maltese buyers have been able to use PayPal to buy items from several online sellers, especially on eBay. However, when it came to selling your stuff rather than buying, Maltese sellers were not able to receive money on PayPal, because Malta was on the send-only zone. Now, finally, Malta has been added to the list of countries which are fully supported. Anyone in Malta can receive funds on a PayPal account, and then withdraw the money to a credit card - with a modest fee of €2. Maybe now it's time to gather all your junk and start selling!
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 20 October 2007 ) |
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| GO, Onvol, and Vodafone upgrade their Internet packages
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Friday, 26 October 2007
The end of October always brings around good offers from the ISPs. It's because all IT-related service providers use the IT Fair (ITEX from this year on) in order to unleash their upgrades.
Read on.
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 26 October 2007 ) |
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| Onvol silently re-upgrades Internet packages
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Thursday, 01 November 2007
Last week, we reported that GO, Onvol and Vodafone have upgraded their Internet packages. Onvol were the first to announce the upgrades, and the offerings from their competitors were a bit better at that time. To counter that situation, this week, we just discovered that Onvol once again have upgraded their packages - this time just to increase the monthly download limits. Onvol Red has been upgraded from 2GB to 10GB per 30 days, Lite was upgraded from 15 to 20GB, while Sonic was upgraded to 30GB instead of the previous 20GB. It is also worth mentioning that the upload speed of the Sonic is now at 512Kbps, which when considering that the package includes free telephony and is Lm4.05 cheaper than GO's 30GB package, one can easily say that for the time being, Onvol are offering a much better package than GO.
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 01 November 2007 ) |
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| Malta gaining speed on OpenStreetMap
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Thursday, 06 December 2007
Up till a few years ago, you simply couldn't get a good GPS road map
for Malta. Then came along Medcomms and Datatrak who compiled a
complete street map for the Maltese islands. While this was a very
positive step in the right direction, the Garmin software they are
selling complete with the Maltese maps will cost you Lm89, and that
will only work on a selection of Windows Mobile and Symbian
smartphones. Even if that price is acceptable for you, it would still be nice to have a number of options to choose from. Now, a new
solution is brewing.
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| Read more... |
| Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 December 2007 ) |
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| GO Plus increases monthly download allowance
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Sunday, 16 December 2007
It's been less than 2 months since the last batch of Internet upgrades. Now, we are once again reporting about yet another upgrade - this time from GO Plus only. The 2Mbps account that sells for Lm5.95/30 days, now comes with 12GB download allowance, and for those who want more, now there's a 25GB account that costs Lm8.90. The 4Mbps accounts were also upgraded. While last October, the largest account was set to 22GB/month, now it has been re-upgraded to 40GB/month - for Lm13.85/30 days. The 6Mbps accounts are now set to 25 and 40GB, for Lm15.85 and Lm20 respectively.
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 16 December 2007 ) |
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