A group of 8 major Maltese Internet Service Providers (ISP) have called on the Office of the Telecommunications Regulator to apply the status of dominant player in the market to Melita Cable plc, the local cable tv company who will enjoy a monopoly until June 2001. That way Melita would have to allow these ISPs to provide their access services on Melita's network.

Melita is currently testing Internet access over its cable network, but according to these ISPs, the new regulations in the field will not view Melita as having a dominant status and therefore would not enforce an open network policy. David Thake, general manager of one of the ISPs, said that Melita Cable holds a dominant position according to European Union regulations, and is therefore bound to open up its network. The liberalisation of telecommunications in EU countries does not allow such dominance, he said.

Melita cable did not issue a reaction to these statements but sources close to the company told MaltaMedia that it is up to the Regulator to reply to the ISPs requests.

This is not the first time the Maltese ISPs have made a stand against Melita Cable since the summer of 1999, when Melita started testing Internet access over its cable infrastructure. In October 1999 these ISPs closed access to Melita's subscribers in a bid to pressure for the opening of its network. The ISPs have free access on Maltacom's fixed-line telephony network.