Highlights and Activities for Weeks 15 & 16

International Activities

1.   BEREC Net Neutrality Expert Working Group (EWG): The MCA participated in the BEREC’s Expert Working Group on net neutrality.  This working group is preparing a consultation document on the role of the Quality of Service in the scope of Net Neutrality.  The consultation document will be published later during the year.

2.   ICT-VN 6th Consortium: All the partners forming the consortium, including a representative from the MCA, participated in this meeting in order to establish the best way forward for the project.  The methodology for the transfer of best practices from one country to another, the newsletter and the organisation of the European Conference were discussed during this meeting. The meeting also served for the Maltese representatives to hold more in-depth discussions with Irish representatives on how best to transfer the best practice from Malta to Ireland and vice versa. Malta shall be transferring the project Trolleymania.com (currently being implemented by MITA) to Ireland, and importing the project Web Check from Ireland.

 

Corporate activities

1. Workshops on LTE: Two workshops on LTE, one to top management and one to technical staff were delivered by Elena Briola from WiTech.  WiTech is a spin-off of the University of Pisa and operates in the telecommunications market with a focus on next generation's wireless technologies. The workshops provided the MCA with a better understanding of LTE, covering both the technological and business perspectives and highlighting areas of relevance to the introduction of this emerging technology in Malta.
    
2. Courtesy visit by Rosemary Martin, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary – Vodafone Group: Whilst in Malta attending a Vodafone Group Conference, Ms. Martin visited the MCA for a brief meeting with the MCA Chairman and Chief of Operations, together with other legal representatives from Vodafone (Malta). High level emerging issues in electronic communications such as personal privacy, net neutrality, mobile payment technologies and emerging issues associated with social networking services/websites were discussed during this meeting.

 

Upcoming Events

1. BeSmartOnline closing conference: The Authority is in the process of organising a one day conference on the 10^th May to mark the end of the BeSmartOnline! project.  The conference will serve to sum up the achievements made throughout the past 20 months. Mr. Robert Hayes, Director (UK) and Senior Fellow at Microsoft Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments, has accepted to contribute to the conference and provide insights into the online safety challenges posed by emerging technologies. Fr. Joe Borg and Ms. Marika Fsadni will be providing information on research they are currently conducting entitled ‘EU Kids Online’ and ‘ICT use by minors’ respectively.  Attention will then shift to focus upon the continuation of the project. Here the audience will be given the possibility of providing feedback on various aspects on what the continuation of the project shall entail.   This conference should be of interest to all those who’s profession brings them in contact with minors on a daily basis. For further information please visit http://besmartonline.org.mt/webform/besmartonline-closing-conference-may-2012

 

Publications

1. Survey results on the perceptions on bulk mail services:  The MCA published the results of a survey it carried out between January and February 2012, in order to gauge organisations’ perceptions and satisfaction levels with regard to the bulk-mail service, amongst other postal services provided by MaltaPost Plc.  The bulk mail service refers to postal articles consisting of 50 items or more (of identical format, size and weight step) that are deposited with a postal operator, at the same place and at the same time to be conveyed and delivered to the addresses indicated on the postal articles. 40 organisations participated in this survey. [to view survey results click here... http://www.mca.org.mt/article/large-bulk-mailers-perception-survey-postal-services]

 

Litigation and other legal matters

1. Further to the contestation by Global Parcels Limited in relation to the MCA decision which requires that operator to apply for an individual licence to provide postal services, the MCA participated in another two sittings before the Communications Appeals Board. MCA witnesses gave evidence and were cross-examined.
2. Prof Christopher Hodges form the University of Oxford visited the MCA offices in conjunction with comparative studies he is doing on dispute resolution in different European countries.