The government has received 15 expressions of interest for the Fibre to the Home project.
The Communications ministry said submissions were received from the UK, USA, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, China, France and Malta.
The which expressed interest are Oplan Foundation UK, ITS Technologies / Greenwood UK, Huawei China, Kabel X UK, ICT Networks / IFTAC Malta / Sweden, Ventura UK / USA, Sofrecom France, ADTRAN USA, Hydro Rocks Malta, GO plc Malta, Melita plc Malta, Ericsson Sweden, Aggaros Spain, Innbox Slovenia and Vodafone Malta.
This Expression of Interest call is intended to lead to an open tender process.
The ministry said the government is committed to accelerate the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband services to all areas of Malta and Gozo, concentrating initially, on priority broadband users such as businesses, schools and public services where possible.
Following this, the plan is to reach all residential areas in a phased approach through a nation-wide fibre-to-the-home network.
This network is essential for Malta to continue to be among the leading nations in the field of ICT, building upon its successes in attracting ICT and service- based industries to Malta and enabling the Maltese Government to continue to be the European leader in eGovernment services. The government's plans for eHealth and eLearning solutions, which will bring state-of-the-art health care and learning solutions into our homes, were dependent on a resilient, future-proof network, offering services in a competitive environment.
"The objective of having an ultra-fast broadband network is in line with the EU-wide objective of 100 Mbps service availability and wide-spread take-up by 2020.
"Recognising the significant investment challenges associated with the roll-out of ultrafast broadband networks, the government of Malta has signalled its intention to share some of the risks and incentivise investment through direct intervention.
"Intervention by the government will aim to ensure that wholesale access is available on the market in order to foster healthy retail competition."