Malta among leaders in Broadband take-up in homes
Eighty-two per cent of Maltese households now have a high speed internet connection and according to a new OECD survey, Malta is now ahead of Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the UK, Canada, Germany and the US in the sector.
The survey says that Malta ranks third, behind Iceland at 86.7% and Korea at 95.9%.
Between June 2009 and June 2010 broadband subscriptions in Malta surged by an unprecedented 10.2% - the largest jump recorded over the years, according to figures compiled by the NSO.
There are 117,503 Maltese households using high speed internet.
The Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Communications said the pronounced increase in the take-up of high speed broadband services was the most significant product of government’s several initiatives ito narrow the digital divide.
These included the supply of over 2,000 personal computers to less privileged people at very affordable prices, wi-fi spots in schools, local councils and public places.
Malta, it added, also leads the way in providing the most sophisticated e-Government package in the EU as confirmed by EU benchmarking reports, attracting more users to on line public services, as well as the rest of the Internet.
The laying of international submarine cables linking Malta to the Internet had also contributed to strengthen the ICT infrastructure.
Minister Austin Gatt stated that he never had a doubt Malta would reach the pinnacle.
“I always believed in Malta and my Government’s policies have helped unleash our true potential. I consider this latest leap in broadband take-up to be yet one more sign that Malta is a truly inclusive society and provides the ideal environment for investment and initiative. The statistics indicate that subscriptions in all forms of communications technology, not only Internet but also fixed and mobile telephony as well as pay TV, continued to increase during the second quarter of 2010. This is just the sort of encouragement we need to take Malta to the next generation network.”
The NSO statistics also indicate that 88.4 per cent of broadband subscribers had a connection speed of more than or equal to 2Mbps, but less than 10Mbps. The standard minimum speed in local broadband connections is in fact 4Mbps, already above the EU average.
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Jens Wilhelmsson
Sep 24th 2010, 00:45
Please. Ahead of Sweden? I live in Sweden and have had 10mpbs since 2000.
I have had 100mbps (both upload and download, full duplex) since 2006
It costs me 30 euros per month and in bandwidth tests and real world performance I get around 85-95 mpbs speeds.
The connection is never down and I will have the possibility of upgrading to 1000 mbps in the beginning of 2011. I live in a small town called Västerås, 100 km from Stockholm.
I have had plans of moving my IT business to Malta and to live there, but this lack of real Internet might scare me away. I am sure other would-be-Maltese-tax-payers are thinking the same thing.
Jon Attard
Sep 6th 2010, 19:59
What a blatant and lurid lie! These statistics are based on figures the Government of Malta (and the MCA) supplies. They are never vetted and it is definitely not true that we have so many broadband subscriptions. Buying a 4Mbps connection does not mean actually having a 4Mbps bandwidth. It just means that you are paying for one. If you use any reliable bandwidth monitor you will know what this is all about. Then there is, of course, government ... always try to fool people and to offset the negative PR it received by the reliable statistic that we are being overcharged big time for our mobile telephony.
David Gauci
Sep 6th 2010, 16:57
Certainly this is good news, however, I have some doubt about the statistics provided. The "ICT usage by household and individuals: 2009" shows that 64% of the Maltese households have an access to the internet. It does not qualify or categorise between broadband or dial-up. Data was collected in the second quarter of 2009. Now, according to this article, the OECD survey states that 82% of the Maltese households have a broadband connection. This article does not mention when the data was collected. My observation is that, if these two surveys are reliable, there was an increase, at least since the NSO survey bundles up together all internet connections, of 22% points in Maltese households having a broadband connection (or an increase of 28%). Meanwhile this same article states that "Between June 2009 and June 2010 broadband subscriptions in Malta surged by an unprecedented 10.2%". Can someone explain to me this discrepancy in the percentages?
D.Galea
Sep 6th 2010, 15:59
Speeds and percentages along in the respect are absolutely misleading due to the sheer differences in the landmass and population sizes respectively.
What is more accurate is why a country like Estonia which is bigger then Malta of course can manage FREE WI-FI everywhere within it's borders, including rural areas or Finland with drawing legislation on making the internet a civil right and in Malta nobody has even dared to dream about these.
C Cassar
Sep 6th 2010, 14:28
The same service (TV, Broadband, Phone) costs more than double the price in Malta than it does in the UK. It's about time the providers started to become more competitive by allowing foreign companies to start supplying their services.
Julian Borg
Sep 6th 2010, 13:41
This is due to our small size and proximity to telephone exchanges across the Island. How can you expect larger countries with rural populations being too far from the telephone exchange wanting high speed access but not being able to get it, having to rely on Dial-up or adsl at dial-up speeds. I'm glad Austin Gatt is slapping himself on the back for this one. He may have instigated some initiatives, but the takeup is not due to him; in fact his pushing the public and educational bodies towards Microsoft has saturated the market with qualified people in Microsoft only. Where are our Java and Linux people when that's what the industry is now calling for? We need a CTO not a minister that doesn't understand technology speaking on our behalf.
Steve Mizzi
Sep 6th 2010, 14:13
Whatever the contributing factors can we for once put our national pride first and political allegiance second.
Despite our limited resources, we are leading in these areas and that is what matters.
This makes a hell of a difference when trying to attract foreign companies to outsource or invest in Malta, especially the ones that never heard of Malta or the ones who have and think of it as just a place of sea and sand.
Let us for once be proud of our achievements, after all people of all political hues were involved in making this happen.
mark d
Sep 6th 2010, 14:19
Agreed!
G. Grech
Sep 6th 2010, 13:36
Now it's about time that people start using online services, instead of queuing around to pay the bills!
Adrian Mercieca
Sep 6th 2010, 13:29
Yes, all well and good....
but where do we stand as regards reliability, QOS and bandwidth/speed?
Darren Galea
Sep 6th 2010, 13:15
Less than 10mbps is so 2007.
Mark Bishop
Sep 6th 2010, 13:06
Will anybody still using dial-up please stand up.