Malta ranks third in high speed internet use
Eighty-two per cent of Maltese households have a high speed internet connection, beating Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, the UK and the US.
Malta ranks third, behind Iceland, at 86.7 per cent, and Korea, at 95.9 per cent, in a survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The Communications Ministry welcomed the figures, saying the increase in the take-up of broadband was the most significant product of the government’s initiatives to narrow the digital divide.
It said that between June 2009 and June 2010, broadband subscriptions in Malta surged by an unprecedented 10.2 per cent, the largest jump recorded over the years, according to figures compiled by the National Statistics Office.
There are 117,503 Maltese households using high speed internet.
The ministry said in past years it had supplied over 2,000 personal computers to less privileged people at very affordable prices and had introduced wi-fi spots in schools, local councils and public places.
Malta also leads in providing the most sophisticated e-Government package in the EU, attracting more users to online public services and to the internet in general.
Communications Minister Austin Gatt said he never doubted that 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.”
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Christian Sciberras
Sep 10th 2010, 11:28
My 4mbps connection hardly ever reaches 2 let alone 4.
And just don't get me started about customer support and their utter disrespect/disservice to their corporate customers!
Jaycee Sullivan
Sep 10th 2010, 07:55
What I would like to know is, "Who issued the information in the article?" Did the Ministry send the info through a release to the press? According to the comments (Charles Muscat) below, someone is trying to misinform the readers or is it an outright LIE and by whom?
J. Spiteri
Sep 9th 2010, 23:55
Where ever do these people get their survey from i wonder, high speed internet at a price that not many locals can afford, in Holland 30MB/ps is normal, in Malta say what you will who ever, but its absolutly crap and very slow. I too check the Global BroadBand data, however if ie., a subscriber receives 5 MB/ps it is always way under that figure, and the nearest to us is Rome and the downstream various from hr. to hr. its way below average and never spot on, or what we actually pay for, we are not getting the full downstream speed. End Of Story, so please get your facts right as in my opinion Malta ranks way down.
Karl Abela
Sep 9th 2010, 17:33
Did anyone understand this article at all?
Malta is rated 3rd on the USE of internet, not the SPEED.
oh, another statistic shows that Malta ranks 1st ....in grumbling.
Christian Sciberras
Feb 6th 2011, 17:26
The article was actually about high-speed internet. Don't know how dialup-grade counts as high-speed to you...
E. Azzopardi
Sep 9th 2010, 14:17
Well, that is very nice indeed. But why don't we go deeper and take a look where we stand with our download and upload speeds, which is most important when using the Internet..
According to the Global Broadband Data, Malta ranks as follows:
46th with Download Speed of 6.89 Mb/s
64th with Upload Speed of 1.10 Mb/s
A far cry from third place!!
(Go to: www.speedtest.net)
Charles Muscat
Sep 9th 2010, 12:30
Here are the latest figures of the first 10 best high speed internet use.
No. 1 South Korea 15 MBPS
No. 2 Japan 7
No. 3 H/Kong 5.7
No.4 Romania 5.7
No.5 Sweden 5.6
No. 6 Switzerland 5.0
No. 7 Netherlands 4.9
No. 8 Belgium 4.7
No. 9 Slovakia 4.5
N0. 10 Norway 4.5
Martin Buttigieg
Sep 10th 2010, 08:11
Hey !! Where is Malta ???? ...... And is Internet cheap in Malta, Woow ! another interesting question is it ?
Andrei Azzopardi
Sep 9th 2010, 11:19
What is the use of having a 5Mbps connection and just 256Kbps upload speed? Why is upload speed not considered? Why we, as customers, CAN NOT upgrade the upload speed? I have been asking to get more upload speed for ages but I get a 'we don't know' reply.
To give an example upload bandwidth is used when sending mail. Have you ever wondered why SENDING a 5MB attachment with a mail takes so much longer than RECEIVING a 5MB attachment in mail? Have you ever uploaded files to an FTP site? This is a nightmare. It reminds me of the old modem days.
If you want to play a new state-of-the-art first person shooter game on these internet speeds, the game will suffer due to the LOW upload speeds. Gaming console owners know what I'm talking about.
So do not be fooled by the high speed download numbers, make sure you also note the upload speed which, in my technical opinion, should be the same as the download speed.
Charles Sammut
Sep 9th 2010, 10:16
This being a figure based on statistics, falls in the worse than damned lies category. I pay for a 4mbps connection with Go. In effect I only get 1.243mbps download and 0.305mbps upload speed. But according to 'statistics' I have a 4mbps connection.
Nobody believes this BS any more. They will be telling us that we have the best road network in the EU next.