Go is to increase mobile internet speeds to 21 Mbps across the country, with an enlarged area of 3G coverage, the communications company said.

Go said following a substantial investment programme that started last September, it is in a position to offer 14.4 Mbps speeds for mobile internet downloads nationwide, the best speed currently available on the island.

“Go will be the first telecommunications provider in Malta to actually offer this speed across the entire country,” chief technology officer Michael Mertsch said.

“Thanks to massive investment made in our mobile network – including the core equipment upgraded earlier in 2011 – Go now has a top-quality, reliable network with the speeds needed for not only present but also future demand for mobile internet, especially over smartphones and tablets.”

According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 18-fold over the next five years. Connection speed will be a key factor in the customer’s experience.

Dr Mertsch explained how Go was the only provider in Malta whose base stations were linked to the network core and the internet through fibre: customers benefited from fast links all the way from their mobile to the base station and from the base station to the internet.

Chief commercial officer Yiannos Michaelides added that more than half of Go’s post-paid mobile customers used smartphones and tablets and expected to be able to connect to theinternet on the move just as they did when they were at home or in the office.

Go signed a contract with Nokia Siemens Networks last September, which launched a process to replace Go’s existing radio mobile network with state-of-the-art, energy-efficient base stations, as well as to add new sites to expand coverage and improve network performance.