I am back with my phone card. And I forgot a point I wanted to make in that last entry: all of these pre-paid cards are made of plastic, and are themselves sold in a plastic wrapping. Just imagine the amount of waste that piles up daily from these little cards.
Also I tried to get my hair cut, but was told I cannot have an appointment until next Tuesday. I was SHOCKED! Who plans haircuts six days in advance???
Here are some thoughts on telecommunications in Malta.
MOBILE PHONES: It is rather expensive to call a mobile. In fact, it is more expensive than it is to call many overseas numbers! I can call most of western Europe and North America for a fraction of the cost of calling a Maltese mobile number. As a result, people tend to keep phone calls to mobile numbers as short as possible. This is why SMS (text messages) are so popular here. You can send a lot of those and cover the main points of a conversation for only a few cents.
On the flip side, receiving calls on a mobile phone is FREE! As a result, just about every Maltese and his mother (and for that matter, his uncle, cousin, wife, grandson) has his or her very own mobile phone. It is almost unheard of these days not to have one. Even businesses will almost always list a mobile number in addition to a land line (which can be easily distinguished by their prefix). This can lead to some humorous extremes. I noticed the other day that the egg packaging lists the name and address of the farm, including a mobile number. I really thought long and hard as to WHY this was necessary. Is there such a thing as an egg emergency? When would I be in such an incredible rush to find the egg farmer that I would need to ring him or her on a mobile? I still cannot find an answer.
In order to pay for the use of your mobile phone, most people use the pre-paid system. You buy a so-called “top up” card and recharge your account, and then you can talk and/or text away until you run out of credit. Then you top up again. The nice thing about this system is that it helps to control your spending (which could easily get out of hand with the high prices of mobile calls), and that there are no annoying bills to deal with. The “bad” side is that since there are no bills, you never know exactly where your money is going, only that you have used it up.
LAND LINES: Due to the above-mentioned high price of mobile calls, people try to call from and to land lines whenever possible. It is now possible to use the pre-paid system on land lines as well, and we have been trying it out. Again, it is nice not to have to worry about paying bills. However, last night I was in the middle of an overseas phone call to my friends Juan Carlos and Victor when a little recording came on saying “thirty seconds remaining…” It had been nearly a month since we topped-up the land line, and it looks like the credit was running low. How courteous of Maltacom to give me such advance warning as THIRTY SECONDS! The conversation had to be cut short. This morning I did not make it to the store to get a top-up card, so now I am sitting around, waiting for the siesta hour to end so I can go to the store and then use the phone once again.
Which reminds me, it is 4:11pm, the stores must be opening right now!
