Though high speed internet access in Malta is available in practically every household, the take-up rate is still very low.

According to the ‘Broadband Markets in Malta – 2013 report’ published by the European Commission the share of high speed connections (at least 30 Mbps)  last year was just 1.7 percent which is significantly lower than the EU average which stands at 12.8 percent.  

It also transpired that ultra-fast connections (at least 100 Mbps) accounted for less than 1 percent of all subscriptions, which is less than a third of the 3.4 percent EU average.

In 2012, standard fixed broadband covered more than 99.95 percent of homes in Malta (95.5%  in the EU). At the same time, the so called Next Generation Access which is capable of providing at least 30 Mbps download was available to 99.9% of homes, as opposed to 53.8% in the EU.  

In January of this year, the incumbent operator, (which the report fails to identify) had a market share above the European average  (49.7% compared to 42.3% in the EU).  49.9 percent of all subscriptions were DSL connections (73.8percent in the EU), while cable broadband connections accounted for 47 percent of the market (17.4 percent in the EU).

In mobile broadband, use on computers and on smart phones remains close to the average. The take-up (subscriptions as a percentage of population) of fixed broadband was 32.6 percentage in January 2013 which is 3.8 percentage points above the European average of 28.8 percent and 1.7 percentage points higher than in 2012.

The report also says that third generation mobile broadband (HSPA) was available to 99 percent of population in 2012 (96.3 percent in the EU). To date 4th generation mobile communication is not yet available in Malta.

The take-up rate of (subscriptions as a percentage of population) of mobile broadband was 35.2% in January 2013, below the average of 54.5% in the EU.