Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1306837
6 INTERVIEW 05.11.2020 PAUL COCKS Melita offers extensive services to businesses. Which is your bigger customer base: residential or commercial? How are you supporting businesses in Malta? Have you stepped up this support during the Covid-19 pandemic, when many businesses are suffering severe losses? When Melita launched in 1992 it was very much focused on the residential market and today, in fact, we are present in around 75 per cent of homes across Malta and Gozo. e company also be- gan offering services to business cus- tomers more than 20 years ago and Mel- ita Business now caters for the needs of hundreds of companies from sole traders to multinationals. Of course, 2020 has been a very chal- lenging year for many of these clients; the connectivity we provide became even more critical for our customers in March, as the switch to remote working created a 70 per cent increase in inter- net traffic. Our foremost priority was to ensure our network could cope with this unforeseen surge in demand, keeping our customers online and in communi- cation. We supported all our clients at this time, being flexible in creating solu- tions, providing advice and, where need- ed, quickly adapting private networks to the new situation. The Internet of Things is gaining more momentum and public awareness. How does Melita allow its customers to harness the full potential and benefits of IoT? Melita's business is all about connectiv- ity and I am very comfortable saying that we are a leading innovator in IoT in Eu- rope. We are the only operator in Europe to offer nationwide IoT services on 3G, 4G and NB-IoT (Narrow Band IoT). NB- IoT is a particularly interesting technolo- gy which reaches deep underground en- abling us to connect sensors in locations such as the lowest levels of underground car parks – with applications such as monitoring empty car parking spaces or full rat traps! ese NB-IoT sensors have a battery life of up to 10 years, so once installed thanks to the reliability of our network, the information from the sen- sor will keep flowing with minimal hu- man intervention. We have made access to IoT services straightforward for our customers in Malta and across Europe. rough the launch of Melita.io in September 2019, we have created a platform which gives our customers the ability to choose from a range of products ensuring flexible commitment as well as an online portal allowing customers to manage their IoT operations securely. In addition to our services in Malta, we recently launched m.iot in Germany. m.iot is a key component of our strate- gy to make a great Maltese brand a key player in this segment at international level. Beyond connectivity, together with partners we are also offering entire solu- tions for specific IoT applications. is summer Melita became shareholders of HandsOn, a leading Maltese company in the IoT space, which provides IoT solu- tions for tracking of vehicles and goods. What business offerings make Melita stand above its competition when it comes to services offered to the business community? e IoT capabilities which we just dis- cussed are unique, even on a European level. But, of course, there is much more that Melita Business has to offer. For a start, we are the only company in Malta to have a purpose-built data centre in a strategically secure location which is also ISO27001 certified. is data centre of- fers a solution for every business from a simple rack to a complete range of colo- cation services. In terms of keeping Mal- ta's businesses running, we provide fully redundant international connectivity. Another service which sets Melita Busi- ness apart is our capability to offer a fibre connection to businesses nationwide. To make such connectivity even more read- ily available we are installing ready-to-go fibre connections in new build business centres - such as Quad Towers. We have further strengthened our offering in the business sector through the acquisition of Ozone which has enabled us to offer value-added voice services such as Cloud PBX and hardware services including Wifi and in-house video systems, which are particularly relevant for the hotel sector. Melita has already installed the 5G network infrastructure across Malta and is currently undergoing testing in certain areas. What is the reason for the testing and what are the results showing thus far? As you rightly point out, Melita has indeed already installed a 5G ready net- work across Malta and Gozo. is pro- ject began in 2018 when we partnered with Ericsson, a renowned Swedish mul- tinational. e roll-out was completed in 2019 and our customers have since been enjoying the benefits of this state-of- the-art network on 4.5G. As 5G devices start to become available, Melita decided that the time was right to test how this Ericsson network performs in the Mal- tese context on 5G. For this limited test we are using wireless frequencies which have been in use in Malta for many years. e results so far show that technically the network can transmit on 5G with a very negligible effect on emissions which remain at less than 1 per cent of the in- ternational guideline levels issued by ICNIRP, a WHO-endorsed body. e re- sults of the ongoing 5G test are constant- ly updated and viewable at https://www. melita.com/mobile/5g-trial-results/ With the launch this month of the iPhone 12 with 5G capability and other providers to follow, when do you envision Melita will be in a position to start offering 5G connectivity in Malta? Melita's 5G trial is just the first step but a decision on when we can start offering 5G services commercially is still a little way off. To begin with, the Maltese regu- lator still needs to assign frequencies for 5G. Obviously, customer demand for 5G services, which we expect will grow as more 5G enabled devices become avail- able will play an important role in our decision on when to launch 5G in Malta. Melita offers a diverse package to residential users: mobile telephony, internet, tv. Which is the most lucrative? Which is the biggest priority for the company? Our focus in recent years has been on investing in our infrastructure for both mobile and fixed services. Our 5G ready Ericsson network is the most advanced mobile network in Malta offering great- "I can't predict the future but what I will say is that Melita is on an exciting journey," Melita Limited CEO Harald Rösch tells BusinessToday. He talks of the company's significant investment in Malta, the onset of 5G and the Internet of ings, and how Melita plans to continue to play an exponentially increasing role in people's lives Giving customers the best experience