Heritage Malta’s Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit (UCHU) was involved in the production Episode 6: Island Under Siege, which focusses on narratives that took place in 1940 when Axis powers attacked Malta. Heritage Malta says that the support of UCHU was “fundamental” in its contribution of the underwater sequences which will make the episode “more intriguing”.

“National Geographic’s productions are in line with UCHU’s outreach campaign at informing the general public about the importance of the underwater cultural heritage. By teaming up with National Geographic, Heritage Malta has facilitated the sharing of Malta’s cultural heritage with an international audience,” said Heritage Malta’s Acting CEO, Noel Zammit.

Heritage Malta established UCHU to create a department that was specifically responsible to identify a number of underwater sites so they could be studied, protected and made accessible to all in a controlled and managed way, the press statement says.

Heritage Malta is also working on establishing underwater archaeological parks off the shore of the Maltese Islands, which would carry many benefits, according to HM, such as enhancing the protection of the archipelago’s “unparallelled and precious underwater” cultural resources. Additionally, such sites can further enhance the tourism package the island nation can offer to divers, as Malta has embarked on its way to becoming a market leader in the field of deep water wreck diving, the press statement stresses.

The post NatGeo featuring Malta’s underwater heritage today first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

Subscriptions in the fixed broadband segment were up by 5.8% to 191,833 by end of 2018, as take-up of fast broadband surged by 76% year-on-year, reaching 63,799, as compared to the preceding year.

This performance has led to a reported 4.4% increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) to €117.92 in the second half of 2018, as compared to €112.99 reported in the same period a year earlier.

Subscriber numbers for mobile telephone services grew by a slight 1.8% in year-on-year to 615,843 by the end of 2018. This figure is a telltale sign of a highly-saturated market, considering the estimated 460,000 population of Malta. Calculating with these figures, it puts mobile subscriptions at roughly 133% of the population.

In contrast, at the end of 2017, unique mobile subscriber numbers in Europe reached 465 million, equivalent to 85% of the population, according to figures by GSMA, which body represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators with over 350 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem

In Malta, the number of mobile voice traffic minutes were up by 37.9% year-on-year to 619.1 million in the second half of 2018 (excluding roaming minutes).

Prepaid plans still dominated the segment by taking up 62.5% of all subscriptions, nevertheless losing some ground by 0.7%, while the postpaid sector was up by 6.6% year-on-year.

As demand for connectivity on the go is quickly growing, mobile data usage has been going up. Some 74% of all mobile telephone subscriptions accessed mobile data services, up by 1 percentage point year-on-year. Users consumed 3.2 million GBs of data in the second half of 2018, up by 0.8 million GBs (+30%) when compared to mobile data consumption recorded in the same period a year earlier.

Due to expanding mobile data usage, the revenue stream of local operators went up resulting in an ARPU of €92.40 in the second half of 2018, as compared to €88.86 in the second half of 2017.

Fixed telephone services losing popularity

Despite a year-on-year growth of 6.3% to 255,437 in subscription numbers in H2 2018 — which was chiefly fuelled by the service being offered in bundle packages — customer behaviour reveals that fixed telephone services play a less significant role in the end user’s life as voice minutes fell by 5.7%. National voice traffic volumes came to 203.8 million minutes, while internationally 8.4 million fixed-to-international (FTI) voice call minutes were recorded.

Nevertheless, television is an attraction force for the eyes of subscribers. “The pay-TV sector saw a 6.2% jump in subscriptions year-on-year, with a total of 165,289 subscriptions recorded at the end of the current reporting period. Bundling is also getting increasingly prevalent in this segment, with 72.2% of all pay-tv subscriptions being bundled with other services at the end of the year, which is up by 6.3 percentage points over a 12-month period,” the MCA report says.

“The increased take-up of premium content reinvigorated not only the subscriber base of the pay-TV segment but also the revenue streams of local operators. In fact, the ARPU for this sector was up by 2.2% from €44.27 at the end of 2017 to €45.23 at the end of 2018,” the MCA report adds.

As trends indicate increased online activities, mail volumes in the postal sector — albeit marginally — were down as compared to previous years. Single piece and bulk letter mail segments accounted for the registered drop, according to MCA figures. Although gains were noted for registered mail items and parcel mail segments, gains in the latter did not outweigh losses in the former seeing that total mail volume was down 0.2 million mail items or by 1.3%, MCA figures add.

As buying products have become increasingly quick and easy through our handheld smart devices, buyers are ever more likely to purchase goods from abroad. Therefore, the Malta Communication Authority (MCA) recently reminded of possible extra charges to be paid at the border when goods arrive outside the European Union.

The post Cheaper bundle packages lift telco subscriber numbers in Malta first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The total number of mobile subscriptions have been on a gradual rise in the past four years, MCA figures reveal. At the end of 2014, the figure reached 546,229 and rose to 557,583 in 2015 and 585,470 in 2016.

While the number of prepaid schemes for mobile connectivity appeared to steadily fluctuate between approximately 380,000 and 401,000 in the past four years, post-paid plans were on a gradual rise from 166,150 at the end of 2014 to 224,346 at the end of 2018.

Although mobile subscriptions outpaced fixed telephone services, still the figure for landline was on a steady rise. At the end of 2014 fixed telephone subscription were 230,361 and climbed up to 255,437 by the end of 2018.

Television subscriptions on total — including analogue, digital and IPTV services — also grew gradually from 147,880 at the end of 2014 to 165,289 at the end of 2018.

However, in another report earlier the MCA said that both fixed telephone and television subscriptions recently had been on the rise due to bundle packages, when landline internet connectivity comes with a fixed phone line and television package.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) boosted from €56.21 from the end of 2017 to €59.09 by the end of 2018 for fixed broadband. For mobile phones, ARPU jumped from €43.24 to €45.44 in the same period. Despite a visible downfall around the middle of 2018, ARPU for television went from €44.27 from the end of 2017 to €45.23 at the end of 2018. Fixed telephone line ARPU, however, was on a decline for the past four years, dropping from €33.41 at the end of 2017 to €32.60 at the end of 2018.

The MCA published the figures in its updated series of Data Report Sheet (DRS) publications with a report. The purpose of MCA’s publication is to inform the general public about the main trends and development in Malta related to electronic communications and postal services.

Further figures and visual representation of data is published in the MCA’s slideshow, available for public view at the authority’s website.

The post Mobile subscriptions in Malta rise steadily by end-2018 first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.