Malta’s Fixed-Line Phones Are Dying: 68% Just Decorative, Survey Finds

Fixed-line phones gathering dust in Maltese homes as nation goes mobile-only, survey shows
By [Author Name] | Hot Malta

Walk into any Maltese household on a Sunday and the scene is almost cinematic: steaming plate of timpana on the table, television blaring ONE Radio, nonna fanning herself with the free magazine that came with the newspaper. Somewhere in the hallway, beneath a lace doily and a plastic bouquet of Madonna lilies, sits a cream-coloured Telecom Malta (now GO) handset that hasn’t rung since the London Olympics. According to a nationwide survey released yesterday by the Malta Communications Authority (MCA), 68 % of fixed-line subscriptions are “ornamental or emergency-only”, translating to roughly 120 000 silent devices dotted across the islands.

The figures confirm what every courier already knows: nobody answers the land-line anymore. “I ring the doorbell because calling the number on the intercom is pointless,” laughed 29-year-old Daniela Saliba, a Bolt Food rider zipping through Sliema. “Half the time the customer has written ‘don’t call land-line’ in caps.”

Cultural relic in a 5G world
Introduced in 1883 under British rule—only 12 years after Alexander Graham Bell’s famous “Mr Watson, come here”—the fixed telephone quickly became a status symbol in limestone townhouses from Valletta to Victoria. Party lines were shared with neighbours, and gossip travelled faster than the church bells. “In the 60s we rented the instrument from the P&T department; having your own number meant you had arrived,” reminisced 78-year-old Toni Zahra, retired postmaster from Birkirkara, cradling the rotary-dial Ericsson he still polishes every Good Friday.

Today the same artefact is a prop for Airbnb photos. MCA data show 91 % of 18- to 34-year-olds rely exclusively on mobile or internet calling, while 54 % of seniors keep the plug connected “in case the mobile dies during a power cut.” The result is a peculiar Maltese paradox: the country enjoys one of the EU’s highest fibre-to-the-home roll-outs (96 % coverage, Eurostat 2023) yet one of the lowest average monthly voice minutes on fixed lines—just 23 minutes compared to 186 minutes on mobile.

Community impact: who still rings?
Emergency services and village festa organisers are feeling the void. “We used to announce the procession route change on the parish land-line; now we blast it on 17 Facebook groups and hope algorithms are kind,” said Fr. Claude Mangion, parish priest of Żejtun, where the traditional public-address system still relies on a fixed copper pair. Similarly, local councils that fund “telecare” pendants for the elderly report rising maintenance costs as the underlying PSTN network shrinks. “When GO switches off the legacy exchange in 2026, our 400 panic buttons need replacing,” warned Marlene Farrugia, mayor of Għargħur.

Economically, the trend is a mixed blessing. GO’s latest annual report shows fixed-voice revenue down 8 % year-on-year, but broadband and TV bundles up 11 %. Competitor Melita is pushing VoIP-only packages, while Epic urges customers to “cut the cord” with mobile-data family plans. Consumers, however, face hidden costs: cancelling a legacy land-line can mean losing the bundled discount that keeps the Wi-Fi price low, a pricing labyrinth the MCA admits needs “simplification.”

The human stories behind the stats
For some, the land-line is a lifeline not yet ready for the museum. Eileen Azzopardi, 82, of Marsascala, still dials the old four-digit short codes to check the weather at Malta International Airport. “My son bought me a smartphone, but the buttons are too small,” she shrugged. Meanwhile, her 14-year-old great-granddaughter next door has never heard a dial tone. “I thought that socket was for the vacuum cleaner,” the teen giggled.

Telecom heritage enthusiasts are racing to document the disappearing culture. “We’re recording dial-tone melodies and directory-assistance jingles before they vanish,” said David Pisani, founder of the NGO Ring Malta, which is lobbying for one historic exchange—preferably the 1930s Art-Deco building in Floriana—to be preserved as a “living museum” where visitors can literally call the past.

Conclusion
Malta’s fixed-line phone, once the heartbeat of neighbourhood life, is fading into background noise—more museum curiosity than utility. The survey confirms what ring-tones and door-knocks have already replaced. Whether the copper network will be fully retired by 2026 or kept on life-support for festa loudspeakers and panic buttons remains to be seen. One thing is certain: the limestone hallway niche once reserved for the gleaming telephone now competes with Wi-Fi routers and Amazon Echoes, and the only ringing most Maltese will hear this Christmas is WhatsApp. Still, if you listen closely on a quiet Gozitan night, you might just catch the distant pulse of a dial tone—an audible echo of an island talking to itself across the decades.