| Local ISP's to file EU complaint regarding state aid
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| Written by HiVoltage |
Thursday, 05 October 2006
Today's The Times Business section contains an interesting article about the filing of a complaint to the European Commision that the local ISP's organised within the Malta Chamber of Commerce are about to do. The companies in question are claiming that Maltacom and Melita Cable were and still are receiving aid from the government; giving them unfair advantage against their competitors. Being part of a business-oriented publication, this article goes slightly in some extra details that are beyond the scope of Maltameter. However, to quote the most important parts, the ISP's are also complaining about how indirectly Maltacom funded Maltanet's losses between 1995 and 2004 - which losses are calculated to have reached Lm1.8 million. Another complaint is that in 1991, when Melita Cable set up its network, they were given permission by the government to install boxes on the facades of anyone without asking for permission and without paying anything. Apart from that, "Melita was also given a 90 per cent discount on the cost of the use of
the ducts belonging to Telemalta/government (as Maltacom was then). It
was only in 2004 that it started paying at least Lm120,000 a year". Also, the ISP's are complaining about the fact that Melita has still not opened their network for any ISP to use - just as ADSL is. A comment is made about the irony that Melita is complaining about Maltacom not opening their network for interconnection when themselves are not allowing anyone to use theirs.
The article also gave space to Melita's view. One very important point that is made here is that since Malta signed the EU in 2003, it was then when the local companies were obliged to start abiding by the EU rules, and therefore, no one can make any claims about what was going on prior to that date.
If you would like to read the whole article, click here.
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 October 2006 ) |
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