Highlights and Activities for Weeks 9 & 10

International Activities

1. Insafe Resource Cluster Meeting: This meeting is organised by Insafe - the European Network of Safer Internet Centres with the aim of bringing a small group of centre members to share and discuss the resources they have produced and best practices adopted. Representatives from the Netherlands, Russia, Estonia, and Norway also participated in this meeting. A similar meeting was held in Malta in June 2011.
    
2. RSPG Meeting:  The RSPG is a high-level advisory group that assists the European Commission in the development of radio spectrum policy.  The RSPG adopts opinions, position papers and reports, as well as issuing statements, which are aimed at assisting and advising the Commission at strategic level on: radio spectrum policy issues; coordination of policy approaches and harmonised conditions, where appropriate, with regard to the availability and efficient use of radio spectrum necessary for the establishment and functioning of the internal market.
   
   [View briefing slides] [View press release]
    
3. GNSS Meeting: The MCA participated in the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Committee meeting on 29 February 2012.  Presentations were given by the European Commission on the GNSS Programme Implementation. Amongst the issues discussed was the state of play of the programme, the project progress report for October 2011 to January 2012 and the Work Programme 2012.
    
4. GSMA Congress:  MCA attended the GSMA (Mobile Congress) Leadership Summit held in Barcelona on 27^th and 28^th February.  The Summit included leading mobile industry speakers such as Franco Bernabe, Chairman GSMA and CEO Telecom Italia; Sunil Mittal, Managing Director, Bharti Airtel; Cesar Alierta, Executive Chairman, Telefonica; Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission; Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications and IT India; Jose Manuel Soria, Minister of Energy, Industry and Tourism, Spain, amongst others.  Some of the topics discussed and in which MCA participated were:
    

• Evolution of the Mobile Internet;
• Socio Economic Benefits of SIM based Near-Field Communication;
• Mobile Privacy;
• Analogue Switch Off and Digital Dividend;
• The next wave of mobile devices;
• Decisions of World Radio Communication conference;
• Impact of Regulation on Investment;
• Maximising Investments into mobile broadband networks;
• Enablers to spur future growth and investment;
• How the approach to awarding spectrum affects the revenue collection; and
• Creating a positive environment for telecommunications investment.

 

Events

1. BeSmartOnline information day: An information day was held at the Point, Tigne as part of the BeSmartOnline project. The aim of this event was to disseminate information on the safer use of the Internet and encourage people to discuss the problems they are encountering whilst using the Internet.  Information leaflets were distributed by representatives from the St. Aloysius College (SAC) Scout Group.
    
2. Information session with FITA: an information session was held for MCA staff with the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility in which staff members were introduced to the numerous accessibility measures being undertaken by the Foundation.
   
   [Visit http://www.knpdarchives.org/fita/]

 

Media Participation

1. Representatives from the MCA participated in a Radio programme on Radju Malta 1, in which two current consultations were discussed, namely, the consultation on the Broadband Internet Quality of Service Framework and the consultation on the information to be included in subscriber contracts. [View these consultations]

 

Corporate affairs

1. Vacancy for Back-to-Back Policy Analyst: The MCA issued a public call for a Back-to-Back Policy Analyst (MPO/103/2005/12 ETC 79/2011). Closing date for applications is Monday, 12^th March 2012.
   
   [See http://www.mca.org.mt/article/post-back-back-policy-analyst-mpo103200512-etc-792011]
    
2. Statistical Analysis Modular System (SAMS): The MCA recently finalised the development of its Statistical Analysis Modular System (SAMS).  The main function of this system is to provide an automated method through which operators can submit their quarterly statistics, as well as providing a reporting functionality, both for internal and external purposes. Throughout January, a series of training sessions were organised in which the system was presented to operators and the steps required to fill in the data were outlined.  MCA also concluded a parallel run of the data collection process for Q4 2011 data.

 

Other news

The MCA published a notice following a submission by GO plc of a funding claim for the provision of universal services during 2010.

[See http://www.mca.org.mt/article/go-plc-submits-mca-funding-claim-providing-universal-services-during-2010]