Find Telecommunication expertise in Malta

Malta’s small but effective telecommunications and internet sector has benefited from regulatory involvement and plans for better infrastructure despite difficult economic circumstances since 2008. The industry contributed 4.61% of the country’s GDP in 2007 (Trading Economics). There are approximately 1793 employees in the sector (EconStats, 2008).

The privatised sector is dominated by two main players, Melita Cable and GO (DSL).  However, Vodafone Malta runs a nationwide WiMAX service which has capitalised on both regulatory involvement and investment, meaning Malta has one of the best international bandwidth rates in the entire world (see infrastructure tab).

Malta Communications Authority (MCA) acts as the sector’s regulator, stating that it examines and makes policies for “electronic communications, eCommerce and the postal sector” as well as national ICT strategy:  “eInclusion, internet safety and internet governance.”

ICT training includes 6,800 European Computer Driving License (ECDL) programmes in schools. The University of Malta suggests that there are over 2,000 students in the ICT population (The National Strategy for ICT, 2008). In addition, Malta works with the Commonwealth to improve ICT, and offers a ‘Legal Frameworks of ICT’ course as part of the Malta Commonwealth Third Country Training Programme. The course is organised by the COMNET Foundation for ICT and is designed to improve participants’ understanding of ICT law.

Malta is one of the leading countries in the Commonwealth in the telecommunications and internet industry, and is on the path towards a national Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH) telecoms infrastructure which would make use of optical fibre and high speed broadband for the majority of the population.  There is also increased technological expenditure on infrastructure projects such as Vodafone’s WiMAX network.

There are 536 fixed telephone lines (making it in the top 10 in the world for this), 1,270 mobile subscriptions, and 732 internet users per 1,000 people of the population (2014)

Data also shows that 70% of the population are internet users, which has doubled during the early 21^st Century, with 33% in 2006, 59.1% in 2010 and 70% in 2013 (Internet World Stats).  Malta is in the top three in the world when it comes to international bandwidth, with a figure of 638.5 kbps. (World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Competitiveness Report 2013-14’).