Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/852418
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 23 JULY 2017 News 11 We asked Melita and Vodafone… I'm a customer. When will I notice any changes? The transaction is currently going through the regulatory approval process. This may take a few more months. Once the transaction is complete, the combined company will be able to offer internet and TV services to Vodafone mobile customers and, over time, Melita mobile customers may be able to benefit from higher mobile data speeds, as well as the opportunity to upgrade to even faster 4G and 4G+. The timings of the potential changes from the consumers' point of view are in the process of being mapped out. What will happen when the merger is finalised? Customers will benefit from nationwide, very high-speed internet on both mobile and fixed line as from 2018/19. Business customers (large and small) will likewise benefit from this superfast internet. This will enable them to equip their workforces with the very latest technology and to in turn serve their customers in a very agile and digital way. Maltese customers will be the first in Europe to experience such high speeds, pioneers on how to use such speeds in day to day life. Examples would include seamless HD video streaming anywhere in Malta at superfast speeds, being able to adopt Internet based services such as wirelessly-monitored security cameras, pet tracking, child and elderly tracking as well as vehicle tracking. It would also lay the foundation for Malta being able to experience self-driving cars in the foreseeable future. Are Melita-Vodafone prices likely to fall as a result of the merger? The two companies are currently still operating as competitors and therefore it is not possible to discuss future strategies and prices. It is therefore too early to be able to say what the impact on prices will be. However, we expect that GO will be pushed to compete more aggressively with the combination of Melita and Vodafone than it currently does with two separate entities with different sets of strengths. Am I likely to get good customer service through the merger? Yes. This is a commitment we are making. We are completely focused on ensuring our customers get the best experience possible. Melita has already made considerable improvements in its customer facing processes. Vodafone has access to state of the art training on customer experience for all levels of staff and an accreditation process for all frontline workers. That training will be fully available to the combined company and will be rolled out to Melita staff. "Superfast internet by 2019" News Takeover or a merger? What the CEOs say How Go's Attila Keszeg and Melita's Harald Rösch describe the deal GO plc CEO Attila Keszeg 1. GO built a mobile net- work to successfully compete against Vodafone and invest- ed heavily in TV and content to compete with Melita. The proposed takeover of Voda- fone indicates our competitors have chosen a different approach 2. It is not in consumers' inter- est for there to be an unbalanced situation in the market as this would have a negative effect on competitiveness… what incen- tive would an artificially-created dominant player have, to do anything other than milk the market. And how could the lesser player meaningfully change the game? There is also the threat of price increases. How is Melita going to recover the cost of buying Vodafone? It will use its acquired dominant position in the mobile market to raise prices. If that happens, then it opens the door for prices across the board to go up. 3. As a company Vodafone is leaving Malta. The Vodafone brand may well be retained only because the new company would pay franchise rights. The new company will no longer be part of the Vodafone Group… so in a scenario where Melita is essentially taking over Vodafone's Malta business, the main deci- sion is for existing Vodafone customers, and whether they will be happy with Melita customer service or not. 4. GO has already deployed the fastest and best 4G mobile network in Malta… we have the ambition to deliver the best customer service on the Maltese mar- ket. Melita CEO Harald Rösch 1. It is crucial Malta secures the considerable investment for nationwide Gigabit-capable broadband and 5G. In any country, the high cost of infrastructure means operators must be of sufficient scale to be able to invest in networks and services of the future. In smaller countries like Malta, this situation is more acute. Companies willing to invest in building Mal- ta's digital infrastructure must be able to make a fair return, or our island will be increasingly set adrift from the technology available on the European main- land. 2. The merger will ensure that Malta benefits from this critical future in- vestment. The combined business will have the scale to make these sig- nificant investments. 3. Malta depends on real competition in the converged market and this can only be created by bring- ing together Melita's expertise in fixed and internet services with Vodafone's strength in mobile. GO has built up a clear position of strength on the full portfolio of bun- dled services; thanks to its legacy infrastructure from Maltacom, it has been able to create a strong fixed and 4G Mobile network. 4. [On reducing competition in the mobile te- lephony sector] This supposition ignores the increased competition the mobile industry has faced over the last few years from the arrival of free messaging and voices services like WhatsApp and Facebook… It is worth not- ing that TV, fixed telephony and fixed internet services in Malta have, for many years, been two-player mar- kets. Despite this, price levels in Malta are very much on a par with European levels… this merger will there- fore increase sustainable competition, not reduce it. These statements are sourced from Keszeg's interview to the Malta Business Weekly and an opinion piece by Rösch in the Times of Malta