25-31 October 2000

EURO INFO In Focus: Vilhena Funds AGM "Assets under management in the Vilhena Funds SICAV plc. have increased by an impressive 42% from Lm36.19 million as at 30 June 1999 to Lm5l.58 million as at 30 June 2000. The number of shareholders has tipped the 3,500 mark." Chairman Dr Remigio Zammit Pace announced during Vilhena Funds’ Annual General Meeting. FEXCO Investment Services launched amid expanding industry FEXCO Investment Services (Malta) Limited was recently launched. The company has been licensed to conduct Investment Services business by the Malta Financial Services Centre. At a reception Finance Minister John Dalli welcomed this new initiative by FEXCO Investment Services (Malta) Limited.			Mobile companies get ready to respond By Nadine Brincat With the launch of mobile phone company Go Mobile just six weeks away, competition in the mobile phone sector appears to be hotting up. While Go Mobile told The Business Times last week that it would be making available a number of services, including the ‘information on demand’ service, unique to its SIM card, Vodafone said that it planned to offer WAP and GPRS services as well as a range of other products for customers. When asked about rivalry which will inevitably result from Go Mobile’s entry into the market, Koren Borges, from Vodafone’s Marketing and Business Development, stressed that Vodafone was ready for and welcomed competition. "We have applied for rate reductions to the regulator for a special mobile-mobile rate, which has been rejected and is now in the appeal process," she said. The company, which registers 70,000 customers, has also announced that other pricing plans and service programmes are currently being developed. Ms Borges told The Business Times that the company was pleased with its performance at the IT Fair, particularly regarding its new service, SMS. "We are delighted that the regulatory restrictions, that prohibited us from offering this standard GSM service have now been removed," she said. SMS became available to customers abroad in July 1997, when Vodafone launched the GSM service, as it is a standard feature of GSM technology. The SMS service initially experienced congestion, which the company took measures to correct, due to enthusiastic usage by customers. Vodafone also offers free SMS from their website which allows a person to send up to eight SMS messages to Vodafone Malta customers per day. The SMS service is said to have registered unprecedented success when compared to other European countries. Maltese subscribers have already, within a couple of weeks, sent more messages than those sent by European subscribers in one month. Joe C. Grioli, Managing Director of Vodafone Malta Limited, said that the service’s popularity is largely due to the fact that it is a fast, easy and cost-effective means of sending text messages between mobile phones, which is proving to be very good value for money. The local service is reported to be relatively cheaper than that in the UK. In the first days following the launch of SMS, Vodafone offered one-day delivery attempts in case the person’s phone was switched off. That way the message would be delivered if the person switched their phone back on in a day. At present, messages sent to phones that are switched off will not be delivered. Eventually, following necessary technical adjustments that are expected to be completed in December, Vodafone expects to resume this one-day service.

The Business Times, Network House, Vjal ir-Rihan San Gwann SGN 07 | Tel: (356) 382741-3, 382745-6 | Fax: (356) 385075
Editor: Saviour Balzan
e-mail: [email protected]