Malta launches gigabit internet, years ahead of EU targets
Melita – Malta’s leading internet provider today announced the launch of gigabit internet for homes and businesses. The 1 Gbps or 1000 Mbps internet service is initially available in St Julians, Sliema and Valletta, with the Melita Flexi bundle for residential customers, for an additional €25 a month over the 100 Mbps subscription.
Melita has always taken great pride in providing cutting edge internet services, and in playing its part to help drive Malta into the top tier for realisation of EU digital goals. In 2011, it was the first local operator to launch 100 Mbps internet services nationwide, and from then on, Melita has ensured that Malta kept its place at the top table of EU nations, with continual improvement in internet speed and quality. From today, Malta will also be one of the first countries in Europe to offer 1 Gbps internet speeds at an affordable price.
“So far there are very few ISPs in Europe, that are able to offer such bandwidth,” explained Melita CEO, Harald Roesch. “2025 is the target of the European Commission for all schools, transport hubs and main providers of public services as well as digitally intensive enterprises to have access to internet connections with download speeds of 1 gigabit of data per second (1 Gbps). Here in Malta however, Melita will not be waiting for 2025, on the contrary, we are ready with gigabit internet in Valletta, Sliema and parts of St. Julian’s today. ”
Cisco is proud to be partnering with Melita to seamlessly migrate to the latest generation of high bandwidth, Gigabit capable, cable broadband network technology. This cable technology is being chosen by other leading service providers worldwide, and will provide Melita with the high bandwidth potential to continue providing the best customer experience and meet the growing demands of consumers and businesses in Malta. Melita and Cisco have successfully collaborated for more than a decade to provide cable broadband, high speed WiFi and Internet to Maltese customers, and Gigapower will be the latest evolution to a high bandwidth, quality infrastructure that supports the growth in video content, cloud and new application experiences,” explained Rueben Azzopardi – Malta’s Account Manager.
When addressing the launch of the 1GB speed by Melita, Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation Silvio Schembri said that the launch is a testament of the private sector strong contribution in strengthening our digital infrastructure. ‘This initiative compliments our vision as part of the European Union Digital Single Market Strategy in putting everyone on the GB speed’ Schembri said while adding that it was earlier this year when in Tallinn, Estonia EU ministers including Malta signed a declaration that set out the guidelines of 5G connectivity. ‘We’re best placed to put the digital economy as one of the strong pillars of Malta’ economic growth’ Schembri said.
Melita has been preparing its fibre-coax infrastructure for this upgrade for years, meaning that there are no complex installations or re-wiring needed to get access to one of the world’s best internet connections – all it takes is a simple change in modem.
With the added bandwidth, the amount of information that can be carried from one point to another in a given time period will increase dramatically, enabling businesses across sectors, from finance to e-commerce to use, and create, the next big innovations.
For homes across Malta, GigaPower internet from Melita will mean that downloading music, pictures and video will be much quicker and easier than is possible on current internet connections; even when many devices are online in a home or office at the same time. Downloading the highest quality film, for example, will take about 30 seconds.
With this innovation Melita is leading the way, but today very few devices are capable of reaching 1 Gbps speeds, so Melita recommends GigaPower for businesses and households with several people online together.
With GigaPower we also get one huge step closer to new innovations such as virtual telepresence, remote healthcare and even driverless cars. None of these would be feasible with current internet speeds but with GigaPower they would be, and Malta will be ready.
With such high capacity bandwidth, the sky is the limit. For example, whilst driverless cars might sound very futuristic at the moment, with GigaPower and the bandwidth capability that comes with it, the driverless car concept is closer to becoming a reality than ever.
The same applies for remote healthcare – since people are living longer with serious health conditions, GigaPower would allow medical practitioners to monitor their patients without having to be in the same room with them.
By being one of the first ISPs to launch gigabit internet, Melita is ensuring that Malta remains one of the most technologically advanced countries in Europe when it comes to online connectivity.
