Almost half of Maltese internet subscribers are enjoying speeds up to five times higher than the majority of broadband connections in existence five years ago, according to the latest data published by the regulator.
This ever growing demand for faster connections coincides with a sharp rise in the popularity of online video streaming services, like YouTube, Netflix, Skype and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) which eat up large amounts of data.
According to Malta Communications Authority statistics released for the third quarter of last year, at the end of September internet connections delivering a speed from 50 megabits per second (Mbps) upwards accounted to 40.9 per cent of all broadband subscriptions.
In comparison during the corresponding period of 2012, the majority of connections had much lower internet speeds ranging between 10Mbps and 20Mbps.
It also transpired that by the end of last September the total number of broadband subscriptions stood at 169,901, up from 134,588 in the corresponding month of four years earlier. Compared to the size of the population, the latest total subscription figure translates to a fixed broadband penetration rate of 38.9 per cent, up from 32.5 per cent at the end of 2012.
The MCA data also gives an overview of the mobile phone sector where the penetration rate (which measures the number of connections per population) reached a staggering 134 per cent. This accounts to four mobile phone connections for every three people which in turn translates to 586,140 subscribers. Furthermore, nearly twice as many customers prefer a pre-paid contract rather receiving monthly bills. Vodafone remains the most popular mobile phone operator with 252,335 subscribers, followed by GO (225,898) and Melita (97,788).
Another trend concerns a steady decline in the use of short-messaging-system (SMS) which in the third quarter of last year totalled 100 million, down from 169 million at the end of 2012. This pattern is the result of the rise in popularity of mobile applications like Messenger and WhatsApp.
On the other hand the roaming price cuts for customers using their mobile phone while abroad, reflected in a sharp increase in the total number voice calls. Between July and September last year roaming activity minutes totalled 26 million, which was three times as much as in the first three months of 2012.
The rise in popularity of mobile phones was at the expense of traditional fixed lines. Though the total number of connections has remained constant at around 230,000, outgoing voice traffic in minutes has gone down from 169 million in the first quarter of 2012 to 119 million in the third quarter of last year. In the television sector, subscriptions with GO and Melita remained in the region of 148,000 but IPTV connections continued to increase reaching 23,928 at the end of September. The figure is rather conservative, due to a number of unregulated IPTV providers.
As for the postal sector, mail volumes continued to decline and the total number of letter mail items in the third quarter of 2016 accounted to 8.6 million. However, parcel mail items are on the rise, probably due to a rise in online purchases from abroad.