Highlights and Activities for Weeks 5 & 6

International Activities

1.    Representatives from the MCA continued participating in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC) in Geneve. 3,500 delegates from 195 different countries are participating in this conference.  Information on this conference can be accessed through the following link. http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/index.asp?category=conferences&rlink=wrc-12 

2.  Representatives from the MCA also attended the following meetings:

a.   CERP (European Committee for Postal Regulation) Working Group on the Universal Postal Union (UPU): This working group is responsible for the coordination of European positions in the UPU context with the aim of promoting a competitive postal environment.  Amongst others, the working group will prepare for the 25th UPU Congress to be held from the 24 September to 15 October in Qatar.

b.   BEREC/IRG Contact Network (CN): The BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications)/IRG (Independent Regulators Group) CN group  prepares the ground work for the Plenary Meetings organised by BEREC/IRG. It also deals with any issues that are not solved at its Expert Working Groups.

c.   6th Article 13a workshop organised by ENISA: The 6th workshop of this series of meetings was held in Lisbon and was co-organized by ANACOM (Telecom Regulator of Portugal) and ENISA (European Network and Information Security Agency). This will be the first workshop after the publication of the Technical Guidelines (http://www.mca.org.mt/consultation/request-feedback-harmonised-implementation-article-13a) 

ENISA presented the feedback and comments received from each Member State. The event was held over two days. On the first day, representatives from Deutsche Telekom and Cable and Wireless presented their views on the security and integrity issues that they face as telecom providers. An open discussion on the Harmonization of Article 13a and Article 4 followed. The first day was concluded with a discussion on how Article 13a can be extended to other sectors. The second day was divided into two working sessions, one focusing on national incident reporting schemes and the other focused on the status of the implementation of Article 13a in each Member State.

 

 MCA Publications

1.   Consultation on Broadband Quality of Service Framework: This Consultation puts forward for consultation a Quality of Service Framework in respect of broadband Internet services and addresses the following three objectives: 

  •  the identification of a minimum number of parameters considered suitable to characterise a broadband Internet service; 
  •  the establishment of the relevant methodology to measure these parameters; and 
  •  the establishment of a set of obligations that will be incumbent on ISPs and which will establish with a level of confidence, that the service available to the subscriber is the service contracted. 

The consultation closes on Wednesday, 28th March 2012. (see http://www.mca.org.mt/consultation/broadband-internet-%E2%80%93-quality-service-framework) 

2.   Consultation on information to be included in subscriber contracts: This consultation addresses the following issues:

  •  Provisions that are legally required to be included in contracts related to electronic communications service/s and ensure that these are conveyed in a clear manner; 
  •  The form of such contracts; 
  •  The means by which the contracts should be made available to consumers; and 
  • Any necessary additional transparency rules related to contracts and terms and conditions, for example their availability on web-sites or from outlets etc.

The consultation closes on Friday, 30th March 2012 (see http://www.mca.org.mt/consultation/information-be-included-subscriber-contracts-mcac12-0745) 

3.   Decision on access to the public telephone network at a fixed location: This decision outlines the response to consultation and decision on access to the public telephone network at a fixed location in Malta, following the notification of the respective draft measures to the EU Commission in December 2011. This decision follows an earlier national consultation exercise carried out between the 19th of September 2011 and the 21st of October 2011. (see http://www.mca.org.mt/article/mca-decision-access-public-telephone-network-fixed-location-mcad12-0749)

 

 Publication updates

1) Strategic Plan Update 2012 - 2014 (see: http://www.mca.org.mt/article/strategic-plan-update-2012-2014-mca20738o)  

2) Annual Plan 2012 (see: http://www.mca.org.mt/article/mca-annual-plan-2012)

 

   Events

  1. Safer Internet Day: This annual event, celebrated this year on the 7th February, is a European initiative, coordinated by Insafe, the European network of Awareness Centres that promote safe, responsible use of the Internet. To mark this occasion a number of activities were organised as part of the BeSmartOnline project. Amongst these activities was an event for children which brought together students from three different schools where representatives from each school gave a presentation on their respective views on safer internet. Talks were also held with students by representatives from the MCA as well as The Directorate for Educational Services. In addition to this activity, representatives from the partners involved in the BeSmartOnline project participated in a number of radio and TV programmes to further disseminate the message set of for Safer Internet Day – ‘Connecting generations and educating each other’. Material related to the safer use of the Internet was distributed in all schools which target both the students as well as their parents. In addition the respective Director Generals of the public schools and the Church schools issued a circular to all schools encouraging them to participate in this dissemination plans and also to make reference to Safer Internet Day during their morning assembly. Resources were further disseminated with higher education establishments such as MCAST, Junior College, ITS, and Giovanni Curmi. Talks are already underway to disseminate these resources amongst ISPs.

 

 Litigation

  1. Appeals Board sittings were held on the 2 February 2012 further to two appeals filed by Melita Plc contesting administrative fines imposed by MCA in relation to:
    1. a regulatory decision requiring the undertaking of an independent audit of Melita’s billing system and
    2. the removal from the channel line up in June 2010 of four football club channels without offering impacted subscribers the option to withdraw without incurring any expense.

The parties made their oral submissions in these two appeals. The cases now stand adjourned for the Appeals Board’s final decisions.