Letters | Wednesday, 03 September 2008

Cellcom to comply with rollout obligations - MCA

Further to the article titled ‘MCA warning irritates Cellcom’, published on 30 July 2008, the MCA would like to reiterate the following.
As is standard practice, before any regulatory decision is taken, an extensive public consultation is carried out giving stakeholders the opportunity to submit their views. On 18 October 2007, the MCA published its decision regarding the mechanism and quantum of administrative fines to be imposed on licensees that fail to comply with their roll-out obligations. This decision was not contested.
Furthermore, roll-out obligations and other conditions were clearly outlined in the licence for the establishment and operation of a broadband wireless network that was granted to Cellcom Ltd on 21 October 2005. The licence requires Cellcom to provide 99% coverage by April 2009. These obligations were entered into by Cellcom as part of a competitive selection process and were amongst the criteria taken into consideration during this process.
Cellcom has informed MCA that it will endeavour to comply with its rollout obligations before the next rollout coverage date. The MCA augurs that this will transpire so that the current sanctions can be lifted.
It is important to note that the rollout of BWA services by all the companies involved will only serve to increase competition with the resultant benefits to the consumer.

Mandy Calleja
Communications Coordinator
Malta Communications Authority