The latest scoreboard report of broadband internet access in Malta, published as part of the EU’s Digital Agenda initiative, reveals the country is making available high-speed broadband internet access but few are making use of it.
Take-up of broadband in general is above the European average while mobile broadband is below the average, as a result of strong fixed-line broadband.
The so-called broadband markets report for Malta says in 2012, standard fixed broadband covered more than 99.95 per cent of homes in Malta (95.5 per cent in the EU). At the same time, ultra-fast broadband known as Next Generation Access capable of providing at least 30 Mbps download was available to 99.9 per cent of homes, as opposed to 53.8 per cent in the EU.
In January 2013, the incumbent operator in Malta had a market share above the European average (49.7 per cent compared to 42.3 per cent in the EU). Also, 49.9 per cent of all subscriptions were DSL connections (73.8 per cent in the EU), while cable broadband connections accounted for 47 per cent of the market (17.4 per cent in the EU).
The take-up (subscriptions as a percentage of population) of fixed broadband was 32.6 per cent in January 2013, 3.8 percentage points above the European average of 28.8 per cent and 1.7 percentage points higher than in 2012.
Meanwhile, the share of high-speed connections of at least 30 Mbps was significantly lower than average (1.7 per cent compared to 14.8 per cent in the EU) and ultra-fast connections (at least 100 Mbps) accounted for less than 1 per cent of all subscriptions (3.4 per cent in the EU).
On the mobile side, third-generation mobile broadband (HSPA) was available to 99 per cent of population in 2012 (96.3 per cent in the EU) and there was no 4th generation (LTE) availability. The take-up rate (subscriptions as a percentage of population) of mobile broadband was 35.2 per cent in January 2013, below the average of 54.5 per cent in the EU.
The report on broadband markets taking the EU27 as a whole finds that the market grew in 2011 but the growth rate continued to slow down.
The fixed broadband penetration rate in January 2012 was 27.7 per cent of the population, just 1.3 percentage points up from 26.4 per cent in 2011.
Despite the slower growth, the EU penetration rate exceeded that of Japan in 2011 for the first time.
Malta is listed together with seven other member states (Denmark, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Latvia, Netherlands, UK) as having already achieved full coverage with basic broadband services. Speeds of fixed broadband lines increased significantly in 2011 with almost 50 per cent of all lines providing download speeds of 10 Mbps and above. But the take-up of fast and ultra-fast broadband, i.e. 30 Mbps and 100 Mbps, is still low with just 7.2 per cent and 1.3 per cent (respectively) of all fixed lines providing those speeds.
Bundled service packages are the prevailing way for consumers to get electronic communications services in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Slovenia, Malta, Luxembourg, Estonia and Sweden.
An explosion in mobile broadband usage was recorded in 2011, thanks to increased use of handsets. LTE (long-term evolution) mobile networks are already available in eight EU member states and mobile broadband traffic is already more than twice as high as fixed traffic and is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years.
The reports notes that in countries with well-established fixed markets, the fixed voice segment remained strong despite the growing mobile penetration: in Germany, France, the UK, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and Sweden still more than half of voice traffic is fixed. Malta and the Netherlands were the most expensive countries with €0.21 and €0.18 per minute respectively.