Melita counters EC report on broadband data

Melita has countered media reports that local broadband provision services lag behind EU averages in pricing, quality and coverage. 

Responding to an article carried by the The Times of Malta last week, the utilities company said that the methodology used to gather the data in question and the conclusions drawn do not reflect Malta’s advances and positioning as one of the EU’s leading next generation broadband nations.

"The test results are not based on a measurement server in Malta," the press statement reads. "The entity executing the quality tests did not bother to install a local test server. This fact has a material impact on some of the results putting into question most of the findings as comparison is made with countries having a local measurement server."

Pricing comparisons are based on PPP indexing and do not take into consideration Malta’s size and geographical position. "In real terms Malta’s prices are amongst Europe’s cheapest when comparing equivalent products."

"The EU Digital Agenda scoreboard for 2015 confirms Malta as a leader in next-generation broadband both in terms of coverage and take-up of high speed internet."

Melita also countered the report's data on its own services. 

"The EC report is also interpreted in an incorrect manner as the data actually confirms that in terms of Actual vs Advertised speeds Melita’s result is 21% better than EU overall weighted result. Average download speeds for Melita’s customers grew by 16% over the previous report."

It also defended its pricing scheme - for a 30 Megabit product, which Melita charges at €23.50 per month, operators in countries such as Netherlands, Portugal or Italy charge €38, €40 and €42 respectively, it said. 

Melita had also made progress in coverage of Next Generation Broadband, the result of millions in investment. Thanks to Melita’s investment, the report concludes: “Malta remains the only country to report complete coverage for NGA technologies".

The report, Melita said, did not take into account Malta's geographical isolation, a factor that impacts internet speeds. 

"The size of Malta is a fact as is its distance from a major Internet hub. Melita and other local operators have no choice but to incur additional costs to physically get to main Internet hubs such as Milan, London or Frankfurt to connect to the Internet. This physical reality also impacts latency which the newspaper incorrectly interpreted as “meaning the service is being given at a slow speed”.

"Malta cannot escape the fact that it is the country furthest away from internet hubs therefore response will always take longer since it needs to travel longer distances, although this is measured in milliseconds. The entity executing the quality tests on behalf of the EC confirmed in the report that tests are not based on a measurement server in Malta, which would have material impact on the results."