Malta embraces its digital society

Malta has continued to make strides in becoming a digital society, according to the latest Digital Agenda Scoreboard published by the European Commission in Brussels yesterday.

The country’s main success in 2011 was in the take up of fixed broadband internet services, with a penetration rate of 30.9 per cent of the population, more than three per cent above the EU average and 1.4 per cent above Malta’s own record in 2010.

According to the Commission, Malta was one of “the top performers” in the area.

Accessing the internet on mobile phones is also becoming increasingly popular in Malta, thanks to the introduction of smartphones.

Although still much lower than the EU average, Malta’s mobile broadband penetration rate in 2011 stood at 21.2 per cent of the population, an increase of 8.9 per cent in just one year.

The average in the EU in 2010 stood at 43.1 per cent.

The scoreboard also notes significant progress in the use of the internet by the ­Maltese. Those using the internet regularly increased by six per cent in 2011, reaching 66 per cent of the population and only two percentage points below the EU average.

Thirty per cent of the Maltese said that they had never used the internet until the end of last year.

Shopping from abroad seems to be a favourite among Maltese internet users, so much so that Malta ranks second when it comes to cross-border EU shopping.

The report notes that the take-up of eCommerce in Malta is above the EU average, with 45 per cent of the population buying online, up seven per cent since 2010.

The only other member state with a higher take-up was Luxembourg.

At the same time, 22.4 per cent of businesses purchased online and 15.8 per cent sold online last year.

The percentage of citizens using online public services remained stable at 37 per cent, slightly below the EU27 average (41 per cent).

In contrast, the percentage of firms using online public services increased from 77 per cent in 2010 to 89 per cent in 2011, above the EU27 average of 84 per cent.

On an EU level, the report shows that 95 per cent of Europeans have access to a fixed broadband connection while mobile internet take-up grew by 62 per cent to 217 million mobile broadband subscriptions.

Also, 15 million Europeans connected for the first time in 2011, with 68 per cent of Europeans being online regularly and 170 million using social networks.