NEWS | Wednesday, 30 July 2008

MCA warning irritates Cellcom

Charlot Zahra

Cellcom, one of the two telecoms companies that has not rolled out its Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) services has reacted sharply to the Malta Communications Authority (MCA)’s warning that it was not excluding removing the licences of those companies that have not rolled out the service according to the agreed time-table.
Speaking on behalf of Cellcom Chairman Tony Mejlaq. Ing. Saviour Zammit told Business Today: “Withdrawal of licences will not be in the best interest of the consumer and the Maltese economy.
“The MCA had better focus on other issues concerning Fair Competition and the quality and reliability of electronic communications services being provided by the incumbents.
“This is increasingly becoming an issue impeding foreign investment into operations being established in Malta,” he said.
Asked about Cellcom’s reaction to the MCA’s decision to slap a €127.63c daily fine on Cellcom, Zammit told Business Today: “Cellcom objected to the MCA when the fines were proposed in a consultation document. Our objections were not accepted.”

Questioned as to whether Cellcom intended to contest this decision or not, Zammit said: “Cellcom did not appeal the final decision. The time for any appeals has now lapsed by many months since this is a year-old decision,” adding that: “Cellcom plans to roll out services by the end of the year.”
On his part, a spokesperson for GO Mobile skirted the issue of the daily fines also imposed on them by the MCA, along with a warning about the suspension of the licence for non-compliance.
“GO plans to launch (BWA) within Q4 2008. Also, we have cleared the position with the MCA on this topic and we update them regularly on the project progress.
“GO has demonstrated a clear commitment towards BWA roll-out, and as stated by our Chief Mobile Officer Norbert Prihoda in a statement issued by Alvarion (our international WiMax provider),” the GO spokesperson said.
On 21 July 2008, Alvarion announced that they had been selected by GO Mobile to provide WiMAX solutions to the mobile phone company for the roll-out of its BWA network “in the next few weeks”.
Alvarion is the largest WiMAX player, ensuring customers’ long term success with fixed and mobile solutions for the full range of frequency bands. It boasts over 200 commercial WiMAX deployments worldwide.

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