Vodafone Malta has introduced the highest mobile internet speeds across the Maltese Islands, enabling customers with the latest devices to enjoy a significant improvement in speeds on the Vodafone network.
The company’s investment of €50 million over five years, announced in the second half of last year, has now increased by a further €5 million, reflecting confidence in the future, despite the current global economic outlook.
Vodafone Malta chief executive officer Balesh Sharma said during an event at Corinthia Marina Hotel yesterday: “We already have the new 21.6 megabits per second (Mbps) High Speed Packet Access capability live across all of our coverage area. This is another first for us at Vodafone after having been the first operator to deploy 14.4Mbps across our network back in April 2010.
“I am also very excited to announce that we are in the process of also rolling out the very latest 42Mbps capability across key areas and high traffic sites in our network. Such speeds are the highest commercially available speeds on mobile networks anywhere in the world. And we won’t stop at that either.”
Yesterday’s launch reinforces the company’s position of delivering the best network on the Maltese Islands, bringing the very latest mobile technologies to customers, and further widening the gap between Vodafone and its competitors.
Mr Sharma said this underlines Vodafone’s promise to always provide its customers with leading capabilities, not only when compared to the competition, but across the globe. This ensures that the country continues to enjoy cutting edge telecoms technologies to drive the digital agenda.
Communications Minister Austin Gatt, on his part, said investment such as Vodafone’s plays a crucial role in the country’s ambitions to become a world leader in areas such as communications and financial services, and is also extremely important for the tourism industry to flourish. As for job creation, Dr Gatt said several industries and sectors depend on this kind of investment.
Vodafone’s head of technology Andrew de la Torre said the new speeds promise a truly spectacular data experience on cutting edge data devices – from internet keys to tablets.
“The enhanced user experience that Vodafone’s upgrade brings has been optimised after extensive drive testing to make sure we understand the overall experience our customers can enjoy.
“As with all telecommunications technologies, such speeds can only be achieved under the very best operating conditions. For this reason Vodafone team members work endlessly to guarantee that the superior experience happens across our coverage footprint.”
With Vodafone’s new 21.6Mbps upgrade, average download speeds are expected to be about 1.5 times faster than the current experience with 14.4Mbps. In the very best conditions, this capability can already easily support the streaming of full high definition movie content.
Vodafone’s targeted upgrade to 42Mbps will take this experience even further, and provide the ultimate mobile data experience to those customers with the very latest devices. This technology can deliver average download speeds that are about three times faster than what users experience today, and a performance in ideal conditions to rival the best fixed technologies.