bulk voice calls
The year 2016
experienced a continued increase in uptake for fixed and mobile telephony
services, alongside stronger demand for fixed and mobile data services, the
Malta Communications Authority said.
The Communications
Market Review for the period July to December 2016 found that only the pay TV
sector went against this trend, as the sector witnessed a decline in take-up.
Underlying these changes is the increasing proportion of end-users opting for a
bundled subscription.
Mobile telephony
consolidated its position as the most commonly used form of voice communication in
Malta, with 807.6 million voice call minutes registered in 2016, representing a
4.7% increase in traffic volumes over the previous year.
This contrasts sharply
with developments for the fixed telephony sector, where voice minute traffic
volumes dipped by 7.7% year-on-year. Notwithstanding the decline in traffic
volumes, the fixed telephony subscriber base strengthened year-on-year, with
4,157 more subscriptions reported at the end of the reporting period.
This shows that people
still value having a fixed line connection at home or at their business
premises, even though their usage of the service is falling.
The mobile sector also
registered an upward trend in take up, with the number of subscriptions going
up by 6.3% year-on-year to reach 592,923 by the end of 2016.
Whilst the on-going
growth in the mobile telephony subscriber base partly reflects the trend of
end-users purchasing multiple connections instead of switching, changing
consumer preferences (particularly in the use of mobile data services)
contribute significantly to the increase.
Meanwhile, improved
minute allowances and falling average rates per minute of communication
contribute to the increase in mobile voice traffic volumes. The
positive developments for the mobile sector did not however translate in
improved revenue streams on a per user level for local service providers. In
fact, mobile telephony ARPU in 2016 stood at €177.38, down by 2.2% from €181.37
in 2015.
The spread of
consumption by end-users over their multiple subscriptions contributes to the
drop in mobile telephony ARPU, alongside falling average rates per minute of
voice communication and improved data and minute allowances.
The fixed telephony
sector registered a bigger drop in ARPU, with this indicator sliding by of 5.7%
from €151.46 in 2015 to €142.77 in 2016. The main factor explaining the drop in
fixed line telephony ARPU is the significant decline reported in terms of voice
traffic volumes.
Another important
trend concerns the changing consumer preferences in view of mobile data usage
levels. It is of note that the number of end-users actively using mobile
broadband services was up by almost 39,000 (or by 14.4%) between December 2015
and December 2016. This increase coincides with the rising popularity of mobile
applications, social networking and other online activities, which all
contribute to a stronger take-up of mobile data plans.
There have also been
instances where service providers offered more generous data allowances, thus
enticing end-users to make higher use of mobile broadband data services.
Take-up of fixed broadband strengthened in 2016, with 8,088 new customers added
to the local subscriber base. This increase in take-up pushed up the fixed
broadband penetration rate to 39.0% by the end of 2016, compared to 37.6% a
year earlier.
The customer profile
for the sector changed considerably last year, as service providers notified
their clients that some legacy products were being withdrawn and eventually
customers switched to connections supporting faster download speeds of 30Mbps
or more. Of note is that the number of fixed broadband subscriptions supporting
download speeds of 30Mbps or higher at the end of last year stood at almost
101,755. This figure is up by 3,822 (or by 3.9%) when compared to the number of
such subscriptions recorded a year earlier.
Fixed broadband
subscriptions supporting download speeds of 30Mbps or higher now represent
59.4% of the local fixed broadband subscriber base. Take-up of fixed broadband
in a bundle remained very popular in 2016, with the proportion of such
subscriptions rising from 72.7% at the end of 2015 to 78.7% at the end of last
year. The increasing number of fixed broadband connections on super-fast
download speeds enabled local service providers to improve ARPU by almost
10.0%, from €181.45 in 2015 to €199.45 in 2016.
This increase in ARPU
happened at a time when the average price per Mbit was down by 26.3%
year-on-year. The falling take-up of pay TV contrasts with the positive
developments in take-up reported for other electronic communications services.
The pay TV sector has
seen its subscriber base shrink by 1.1% year-on- year, from 149,378
subscriptions at the end of 2015 to 147,756 subscriptions at the end of the
current reporting period. One common explanation to this trend is the rise in
the popularity of online video streaming services, like YouTube, Netflix, Skype
and Internet Protocol Television.
The MCA does not have
the actual figures as to the number of people actively using these services.
However, surveys carried out regularly by the MCA indicate a consistent rise in
take-up of such services.
Another important
trend concerning the pay TV sector is the rising proportion of end-users
purchasing their pay TV service in a bundle. The proportion of pay TV
subscriptions purchased in a bundle went up by 4.4 percentage points between
2015 and 2016, from 56.0% to 60.4%. These latest changes in take-up of pay TV
weighed significantly on the sector’s revenue side, as evidenced by the
year-on-year decline in ARPU reported by local service providers .
As for the postal
sector, developments were in line to long-term market trends, with mail volumes
reported in 2016 falling by 3.1% compared to mail volumes reported a year
earlier. This overall decline results from lower letter mail and bulk mail volumes, with
declines reported for these mail streams outweighing stronger volumes for
registered mail and parcel mail. The latter increases in mail volumes are
mainly attributable to an ever more buoyant ecommerce activity.
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