NEWS | Wednesday, 28 May 2008

New MCA chief deems former Melita top post “advantageous

Charlot Zahra

The newly appointed executive chairman at the Malta Communications Authority (MCA), Philip Micallef, has defended his appointment as MCA chief, despite the fact that he comes straight from the top seat at Melita Cable, a communications key player which he will now have to regulate.
In an interview published in this week’s issue of Business Today (see interview) – the first newspaper interview since Micallef took up his new job – Micallef was confronted on whether he deemed his previous position as Melita Cable CEO advantageous for his new position. He replied: “I personally think it is an advantage to have come from the industry itself as I have experienced the challenges and problems of an operator both in the local and in some EU markets.
“I can appreciate more the difficulties operators face and the tough decisions that need to be taken when it comes to entering new markets, making substantial investments as well as satisfying customer requirements and expectations,” he added.
He also contended that it was “not unusual” for a regulator to have come from the industry, or to have been previously employed with an operator. “I know of the Spanish Regulator CMT, where its head came from the local incumbent Telefonica, and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ofcom in the United Kingdom (UK) came from cable company NTL,” he said.