Melita has just launched its nationwide next-generation cable broadband service, providing access speeds up to 100Mbps, the fastest available to home and business users in Malta.
This broadband internet access allows users to live chat, live stream including in HD quality, download and browse the internet with ease and all at the same time, the company explained.
The ‘Fibre-Powered’ network exploits the latest DOCSIS 3.0 cable broadband technology and the company’s hybrid fibre-coax national network that provides internet access, TV access and fixed-line telephony to its home and business users, as well as serving Melita’s mobile network.
This announcement comes at a time when more and more services are going online and users need more bandwidth to keep connected, such as with social networking sites, but also to watch videos online which is very bandwidth intensive.
Indeed Melita has registered a 50 per cent increase in demand for international bandwidth from its customers in the last year.
“Computing power has continued to increase in recent years and the number of online services has also risen accordingly. This has led to the multiplication of internet users at home, with different members of the family accessing internet on different devices be it a desktop or laptop computer, a smartphone, a tablet or a hybrid TV-internet device,” Simon Montanaro, chief technology officer at the company told i-Tech.
“Our network is an evolving one and we will continue to invest as convergence of the media and the connected home continue gaining momentum. Our next step will be video on demand by this summer.”
Over the last few years Melita has invested more than €11 million to strengthen its core network for next generation broadband services. This investment includes the state-of-the-art submarine cable between Malta and Sicily, launched in 2009, which connects its customers to the rest of the world.
The company’s existing clients only need to subscribe to the service and Melita will provide a new internet modem to start enjoying the fast speeds. No new cabling is needed at home. Since the new 100 Mbps exploits the fast WiFi standard ‘N’, devices capable to connect with the standard will be best placed to exploit these very fast speeds. Devices with ‘B’ and ‘G’ WiFi standards cannot reach such speeds.
Following the completion of investments made recently, Melita was also able to double the upload speeds for almost all its subscribers to satisfy the increasing demand for user generated content uploads to social networking sites, and video. Melita has installed a Speedtest.net server at its head-end in Madliena that can be accessed to test the speed of the internet connection.