An investment of €12 million by Vodafone Malta to deliver high speed mobile broadband over an environmentally friendly network was announced this morning by Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt.

Together with its technology partner Nokia Siemens Networks, Vodafone Malta completed the upgrade of its radio network to offer download speeds of up to 14.4 megabits per seconds in selective areas and countrywide download speeds of 7.2 megabits, the fastest on the island.

CEO Inaki Berroeta said: “We have used this commercial opportunity to reduce our carbon emissions and the new investment will lessen our direct impact on the environment by ensuring higher capacity and better user experience.”

Dr Gatt said that in 2009 Malta’s mobile penetration stood at 102.1 per cent, an increase of 8.8 per cent over 2008. Yearly SMS traffic per active subscriber decreased by nine per cent as a result of bundle offers by the providers.

Calls increased by 13 per cent up to an average of 731 from 647 minutes a year per subscriber.

Active internet users increased by 8.4 per cent over 2008 and broadband subscriptions increased by 11.6 per cent over the previous year.

On e-commerce activity on the internet, the minister said that a monitoring exercise in September revealed that 63 per cent of regular internet users concluded an e-commerce transaction online.