Mobile Phone Plans

Small island, captive market, little competition.

That's life in Malta.

Terry

yep totally agree - cheapest and best servcies for us seems to be Go but the contract plans are all expensive.....as terry says - this is malta

Personally I wouldn't recommend Melita. I've had nothing but problems from them

Having said that, I have a HTC phone and an awesome number to sell if you want to go pay as you go.

funnily enough i have had melita onto me again to try and sell me a plan with a new samsung galaxy y phone - no chance.

LoL toonarmy, you aren't enjoying the countless sales calls you get from them?  I've put in an official complaint after requesting to have all my numbers removed from their lists and having hat request repeatedly ignored. Since then, I've heard nothing further.

nah - ive never had a melita mobile (i only have internet and landline from them) and wont have their mobile as Go is in my opinion a better service for mobiles, plus everyone i know is on Go....

Agreed!

So Go it is then, I take it PAYG is the better option.

i would say so - the phines here are mega expensive as are their packages - i think they have a good selection of PAYG packs to tailor your PAYG usage...try it first its cheap enough. and the coverage is better than melita in my opinion....id also think that go have more cusotmers

Thanks Toon, may have to get a better phone here in the UK before we move across.

id say that was a good idea

I use Go PAYG  for my mobile. For Lynn I will get Melita.

redmik wrote:

I use Go PAYG  for my mobile. For Lynn I will get Melita.

Mick....with that combination do you risk losing the free calls to Lynn (different providers) especially as you are on PAYG.  I'm not sure but something to consider mate.

Mike

MikeInPoulton wrote:

redmik wrote:

I use Go PAYG  for my mobile. For Lynn I will get Melita.

Mick....with that combination do you risk losing the free calls to Lynn (different providers) especially as you are on PAYG.  I'm not sure but something to consider mate.

Mike

Valid point mate but we don't use it for calling each other really, her phone is more of a backup but it gives us an extra option, depending on what we want to use it for.
(Lynn hates using her mobile but sometimes it's useful, like when she gets into a shopping or coffee and cake mode and I can't find her)

Funny enough, I have Melita PAYG and I am quite happy with it. With a min of 10€ top pop, I get free calls to all Melita numbers (mob and landline) and all the calls to other networks in Malta, costs me 10c per min. Well, for me suits quite well.

It seems that, just as in my home country, one needs a degree in economics to find out which plan is the cheapest/best according to your needs...

Is there an online tool or something to help you choose? Or will the panel of experts here be able to help me out?

Would like to go for a top-up plan rather than a fixed plan.
Small user, not a lot of calling, not a lot of texting, reasonable amount of data would be nice.

Not too keen on Vodafone (they renamed Madrid's most important metro station after themselves, takes guts doesn't it), but my significant other has Vodafone, so might be an important factor ...

If anybody has any suggestions, I'll be happy to read them, thanks.

How much data do you consider to be reasonable?
Do you already know where (city/region) you are going to be most of the time? Reception quality could be a decisive factor.

About 500 MB per month? Maybe a bit less ...
Will be living in Lija/Attard/Balzan.

nilonilonilo wrote:

It seems that, just as in my home country, one needs a degree in economics to find out which plan is the cheapest/best according to your needs...

Is there an online tool or something to help you choose? Or will the panel of experts here be able to help me out?

Would like to go for a top-up plan rather than a fixed plan.
Small user, not a lot of calling, not a lot of texting, reasonable amount of data would be nice.

Not too keen on Vodafone (they renamed Madrid's most important metro station after themselves, takes guts doesn't it), but my significant other has Vodafone, so might be an important factor ...

If anybody has any suggestions, I'll be happy to read them, thanks.

Go PAYG Plans

Melita PAYG Planas

If you need that little data I would probably choose GO. (Melita's best offer is 350 MB for 7 days at EUR 2.50, in other words, you would pay EUR 10 for far more data than you actually need. With Vodafone it's a similar problem although not that extreme as you could get 100 MB for EUR 1.50 every week; still less data for more money when compared to GO.)

With GO you can get 500 MB valid for 30 days at EUR 5. Since you will have to top up your account on a regular basis in order to renew your mobile internet, you can take advantage of GO's topup offer at http://www.go.com.mt/Default.aspx?ID=2303 which will enable cheap calls to other GO users (either 5c per minute or 10c per call), however calls to Melita/Vodafone will still be 25c/min. So you top up with EUR 10 every month, half of that goes away for mobile internet and you will have the other EUR 5 left for text messages or at least 20 minutes of outgoing calls at the highest local rate.

A drawback with GO is that in order to check how much data you have left, you will have to send a text message to GO and they will charge you 5c for that. If your phone has a built in data counter or if you're not going to exceed the 500 MB anyway that should not be a problem.

I've never checked my reception with any of the three while being in that area, but since it's quite central I guess neither should be completely unusable. Maybe some other member from that area can comment on reception.

danex2 wrote:

If you need that little data I would probably choose GO. (Melita's best offer is 350 MB for 7 days at EUR 2.50, in other words, you would pay EUR 10 for far more data than you actually need. With Vodafone it's a similar problem although not that extreme as you could get 100 MB for EUR 1.50 every week; still less data for more money when compared to GO.)

With GO you can get 500 MB valid for 30 days at EUR 5. Since you will have to top up your account on a regular basis in order to renew your mobile internet, you can take advantage of GO's topup offer at http://www.go.com.mt/Default.aspx?ID=2303 which will enable cheap calls to other GO users (either 5c per minute or 10c per call), however calls to Melita/Vodafone will still be 25c/min. So you top up with EUR 10 every month, half of that goes away for mobile internet and you will have the other EUR 5 left for text messages or at least 20 minutes of outgoing calls at the highest local rate.

A drawback with GO is that in order to check how much data you have left, you will have to send a text message to GO and they will charge you 5c for that. If your phone has a built in data counter or if you're not going to exceed the 500 MB anyway that should not be a problem.

I've never checked my reception with any of the three while being in that area, but since it's quite central I guess neither should be completely unusable. Maybe some other member from that area can comment on reception.

Can't comment on location question danex2, however, I can comment on that was a very good and well explained answer.

Mike

Thanks guys!

Re: Deposit refunds for internet/telephony/Pay TV service provision:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=278904

mantonas wrote:

Funny enough, I have Melita PAYG and I am quite happy with it. With a min of 10€ top pop, I get free calls to all Melita numbers (mob and landline) and all the calls to other networks in Malta, costs me 10c per min. Well, for me suits quite well.

I'm with Antonio on this one. Melita also started giving 100 MB of data free of charge on top of this once you top up by €10.00.

Tinna

Tinna9 wrote:

mantonas wrote:

Funny enough, I have Melita PAYG and I am quite happy with it. With a min of 10€ top pop, I get free calls to all Melita numbers (mob and landline) and all the calls to other networks in Malta, costs me 10c per min. Well, for me suits quite well.

I'm with Antonio on this one. Melita also started giving 100 MB of data free of charge on top of this once you top up by €10.00.

Tinna

That's correct Tinna. And if you want to add extra MBs, you can just send a sms and for €2.50, you get 350MB for 7 days. Actually, I have to correct something on my previous post. With a PAYG plan, you don't free calls to Melita numbers, they're all at 10c each as to all the other Maltese networks.

I don't use data. Vodafone has excellent customer service and maltese friends initially told me they had the best quality coverage on the island. I'm happy with them but it's true that lots of people use GO, so my calls to them cost me more. It depends which plan you select. You can change plan when you top up.You can, for instance, get unlimited calls to 3 favourite mobile numbers, or opt for 30c/hour call to all Vodafone numbers and fixed lines. Identify your needs, also check who's cheapest when you spend time abroad, if you travel often.

hello i looking for a phone just for calling people not for internet .

just need 1 hour a month . I don't want to put more than 10€ on it.