The new features include a new TV home screen offering a more user-friendly layout which is predominantly image-driven, the service provider says, providing immediate access to one’s favourite TV content from one screen. This development is being undertaken by GO in a bid to deliver an enhanced customer experience and to give customers more content at their fingertips, the press statement sent to BM says.

“For the past year, our engineers have worked round the clock to deliver a whole new TV experience for our customers. Our focus has remained that of connecting people to the content they love, and what better way of doing this than investing in our systems to deliver a platform that can support increased interactivity, push content based on users’ preferences, and which can also deliver TV content over mobile devices at the click of a button,” said Nikhil Patil, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at GO. 

“What is even better is that we have replicated this experience on our TV Anywhere APP that allows our customers to enjoy their most favourite TV content outside the comfort of their home, without consuming data from their bundle,” Mr Patil added. 

Phasing out DTTV

Furthermore, Chris Attard, Senior Manager of TV Systems at GO, explained that GO has been simultaneously managing two TV networks for a number of years. Its digital terrestrial network, more commonly known as digital terrestrial television (DTTV), will be slowly phased out over the coming year, but through further investment, its internet protocol television (IPTV) network, branded GO interactive TV, will continue to deliver rich content to esteemed customers by means of this latest upgrade. 

“TV technology is a fast-changing game and we felt that now is the right time to reinvent ourselves, invest and reconfirm GO as the TV leader in Malta,” said Mr Attard. 

The main features offered by GO’s IPTV platform remain centred on interactivity such as program restart, pause-live capabilities, and a network digital video recorder (DVR) which means that customers can record multiple channels at the same time, amongst a host of other enriched features.

“The system is intelligent enough to capture and recognise what the users are watching and will eventually start providing them with recommendations on what content they are likely to love the most. Furthermore, the user also has the ability to create multiple profiles directly to get TV recommendations that reflect the users’ TV preferences,” Mr Attard added.

“We have been listening to our customers to understand what they want and how best they want our product delivered. Of course, this would never have been possible without GO’s heavy investment in true fibre technology which enables ultra-speeds and reliability, as well as 4G network which adds the portability aspect,” Mr Patil said.

“Now with the network enablers in place, we can push the next generation applications to our customers, starting from a rich TV experience in terms of choice of content, modern environment and content quality. Indeed, I can safely say that when it comes to features and functionality, GO has the edge and remains unrivalled in its service offering,” Mr Patil added.

This upgrade will be undertaken over the course of a number of weeks, therefore GO warns that customers will be upgraded in different phases in order to ensure a smooth change. GO promised to notify customers in advance.

The post GO launches television services upgrade first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The €100 and €200 banknotes of the first series, like all the other denominations, will remain legal tender, which means that they will continue to circulate alongside the new notes and will be gradually withdrawn from circulation — so that their numbers will decrease over time.

“The periodic upgrade of security features is a normal development in the product lifecycle of the banknotes. Any central bank issuing banknotes replaces them with new or upgraded notes in regular time spans to safeguard their integrity,” the ECB says in a statement sent to Business Malta when asked to elaborate on the rationale behind the revamp.

The new banknotes use innovative security features and are easy to check using the “feel, look and tilt” method, the ECB says. Thanks to a satellite hologram and an enhanced emerald number, the banknotes are more resistant to counterfeiting.

“The ECB and the national central banks of the Eurosystem need to stay technologically ahead of counterfeiters. That is why they decided to introduce the Europa series of the euro — i.e. the second series that is now completed with the entry into circulation oft he 100 and 200 notes —, so they fulfil their duty to safeguard the integrity of the banknotes by regularly upgrading and improving the design and security features,” the ECB statement sent to BM says.

Because the €100 is the third-most-widely used euro note, the demand for €100 and €200 banknotes is increasing at an annual rate of 7.6% for the €100 and 8.6% for the €200, according to figures by the ECB.

Staying up to date

The ECB expects the Europa series to allow the institution and national central banks in Eurosystem to keep pace with technological developments and maintain a high level of protection against counterfeiting. ECB underscores that this is the first time the €100 and €200 banknotes are upgraded since the euro banknotes were introduced in 2002. The lower denominations have been upgraded in the last six years, the first one being the €5 banknote in 2013.

The new €100 and €200 notes, in addition, will be easier to handle and processed by machines, the ECB expects. Additionally, the new notes are smaller, so they should also fit better in people’s wallets and last longer, as they will be subject to less damage.

Nevertheless, the changing of all the older euro notes to the new ones should be a lengthy process as the introduction of a new series depends on several factors — such as the counterfeiting threat and the availability of new technologies. At this point, the ECB cannot tell what the exact schedule for entirely updating to the new series will be.

“The production of euro banknotes is a combined effort by the national central banks and the ECB. It begins with calculations for the number of banknotes required each year. Forecasts of the demand for euro banknotes for the year ahead are provided by the national central banks and a central forecast is made by the ECB,” the statement by ECB clarifies the process.

“In order to produce the banknotes efficiently, printing is shared among the different national central banks. The ECB allocates production volumes to a number of national central banks, which then supply a specific proportion of the total annual production of one or more denominations. The respective bank bears the production costs for the share allocated. There are 11 high-security printing works in Europe where banknotes are produced. The notes are subsequently distributed among the different national central banks,” the ECB adds.

The post ECB revamps €100 and €200 notes for enhanced security, longer lifetime first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

“This is a historic milestone for Melita and for Malta. After being the first to roll out a 5G-ready mobile network last December, we have now achieved another first, delivering gigabit internet nationwide,” said Harald Roesch, CEO of Melita Ltd.

“Our ongoing investments in infrastructure continue to ensure Malta retains its position as one of the best-connected countries in the world, while also future-proofing our network for the coming Internet of Things (IoT) era,” he added.

Melita says that its latest upgrade comes as an answer to increased demand for data from homes and businesses, which is boosted by more devices being connected to the internet.


The post Melita’s upgraded HFC network enables 1 Gbps speed first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

Air Malta expects the Anypoint Platform to help the company in building an application network, which could enable the airline to quickly connect new technologies with existing legacy systems. Air Malta hopes to extend its digital presence and increase profitability by participating in the API economy, which enables business capabilities to be monetised using APIs.

MuleSoft Inc provides an integration platform to help businesses connect to data, applications and devices across on-premises and cloud computing environments. By using the Anypoint Platform, Air Malta expects to quickly acquire new technologies as well as to add new airline partners — such as Lufthansa and Ryanair — for growth, more seamlessly.

“Air Malta recently reported profitability for the first time after two decades, growing operating revenue by €5.3m to €197.5m in the last fiscal year. Technology investment had been a critical driver of this success, with MuleSoft at the centre,” said Alan Talbot, Chief Information Officer of Air Malta.

“With Anypoint Platform, we have created a sandbox for innovation across the organisation without affecting core operations. MuleSoft provides a unified platform that enables even non-technical personnel to quickly create integrations. By democratising access to data from legacy systems and across our enterprise, we are able to create new operational efficiencies and identify opportunities to better serve our customers,” the CIO added.

One of the biggest problems of the airline industry today is that the ageing IT infrastructure that can no longer be used in the modern digital world hampers growth and profitability, according to the recent Connectivity Benchmark Report. IT leaders say their legacy infrastructure makes it hard to introduce new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), big data and the internet of things (IoT). Therefore, airlines appear to be struggling to innovate, operate efficiently and offer personalised services.

However, MuleSoft insists that its hybrid integration platform offers solutions for modernisation by allowing to connect to the latest cloud technologies and differentiating the services offered. Their technology allows users to create flight planning solutions, to optimise route planning, to handle reservations faster and to sell flights from the website of other airlines.

The post Air Malta to use MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.