Melita has begun rolling out its Wi-Fi network to provide the possibility to its customers to enjoy the benefits of Wi-Fi internet access outside their home or their office. Driven by the company’s Fibre Power internet broadband network the service, aptly named melitaWIFI, is based on next-generation Wi-Fi technology and is part of the €60 million investment planned by Melita over the next five years.
The service goes live on Monday.
A select group of Melita clients will test the service and give feedback ahead of the official launch in the coming months. Over 20,000 mobile customers with a contract including data will be given free access to the full melitaWIFI service on Monday. This group of Melita’s clients will get access to seven outdoor Wi-Fi zones and almost 30,000 other indoor Wi-Fi spots provided by Melita equipment in homes and offices. The outdoor zones provide comprehensive outdoor coverage in substantially sized popular areas, each of which are popular outdoor spaces. Additionally, this solution is designed to provide a seamless internet access experience where users are not required to repeatedly login as they will be recognised anywhere on the melitaWIFI network. This phase follows extensive technology trials on this project over the last two years.
“The melitaWIFI service is a state-of- the-art Wi-Fi network and it has both indoor and outdoor elements designed to provide improved connectivity and far more convenience to clients,” explained Simon Montanaro, Melita’s chief technology officer to i-Tech.
“The powerful backhaul provided by Melita next-generation access (NGA) fixed broadband network allows Melita’s Wi-Fi service to deliver superior speeds to its clients. In fact, given that 100Mbps is ubiquitously available over Melita’s Fibre Power broadband network across Malta and Gozo, the speed limitation at the outdoor access point is likely to be the specification of the subscriber’s Wi-Fi enabled phone or tablet apart from any limiting propagation factors.”
Indeed the company has chosen to take the Wi-Fi route rather than the 4G mobile communication route chosen by other national mobile operators to provide internet broadband to mobile devices.
“While Melita does not exclude upgrading its network to 4G in future, we see more potential for Wi-Fi traffic in the immediate future. Melita’s primary considerations were the Maltese population density and the extensive reach of its existing, high speed, high capacity, broadband network. As importantly Wi-Fi capability has been included as standard in various popular devices for many years while 4G is currently limited to expensive high-end handsets – so with Wi-Fi far more Melita clients may benefit immediately,” added Mr Montanaro.
All Melita mobile customers on a contract with a data plan will also have Wi-Fi included free for the duration of their contract. Many others will have the option to add unlimited Wi-Fi access to their services. The public Wi-Fi zones at the time of launch will cover part of the Ferries/Strand area in Sliema, Buġibba’s main square, Marsaxlokk’s seafront, Paceville seafront and nightlife area, Paola’s main square, Mosta’s main square, and Marsascala’s seafront. More outdoor Wi-Fi zones will be added in future.
Second major launch in space of a few weeks
According to Cisco, Melita’s technology partner in this infrastructure, less than 20 per cent of wireless data is consumed where the mobile network is the only option. Only 18 per cent of data usage occurs in transit, while 46 per cent of data usage is at home, 16 per cent in office and another 20 per cent in other indoor locations.
“As already experienced in the fixed environment, internet usage trends in Malta are similar to European and US trends. A substantial number of people actively seek Wi-Fi networks, driven by the lower costs and higher speeds possible over wi-fi. The melitaWIFI service makes this process seamless, by providing convenient access to a widespread Melita wireless data network,” added Mr Montanaro.
This is the second major launch for Melita in the space of a few weeks, after it has launched its TV Everywhere service which streams TV live to smartphones and tablets. In its first three weeks around 12,000 clients downloaded the app for Apple iOS or Google Android devices which delivers live streams of both local and foreign channels.
“Melita will also be adding more content, particularly for kids, which fits in with the feedback received. There’s scope for enhancing the app and taking it further and we will be looking at prioritising new features in line with consumer feedback. melitaWIFI will address one of the bigger requests, where customers will be able to use the service when out and about. Actually as we increase the reach of melitaWIFI we will also be increasing the reach of TV Everywhere,” concluded Melita’s chief technology officer.