GO takes the lead in mobile internet

Thanks to the substantial investment programme started last September, GO is already in a position to offer 14.4 Mbps speeds for mobile internet downloads nationwide - the best speed currently available on the island - and within just a few weeks, that already impressive speed will be increased to 21 Mbps across the whole country. Speed acceleration has gone hand in hand with a dramatically enlarged area of 3G coverage making it a network with superior coverage for its customers.

"GO will be the first telecommunications provider in Malta to actually offer this speed across the entire country. And thanks to the massive investment made in our mobile network - including the core equipment upgraded earlier in 2011 - GO now has a top-quality, reliable network with the speeds needed for not only present but also future demand for mobile internet, especially via smartphones and tablets," chief technology officer Dr Michael Mertsch said.

According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 18-fold over the next five years, so the speed of the connection will be a key factor in the customer's experience.

"GO is the only provider in Malta whose base stations are linked to the network core and the internet via fibre, so customers benefit from superb fast links all the way from their mobile to the base station, as well as from the base station to the world wide web. This means that we now offer the best mobile internet experience on the island, especially when you consider that GO also has a well-established fixed internet service, which is constantly being improved through the ongoing roll-out of fibre," Dr Mertsch explained.

"Our customers have already noticed the improvement in mobile coverage and connectivity over the past months but the better speeds and larger coverage now available mean that they will now be able to download and upload data via the mobile network much faster - wherever they are. Already more than half our postpaid mobile customers use smartphones and tablets and they expect to be able to connect to the internet on the move just as they do when they are at home or in the office, whether to keep on top of their work emails, check their social networking sites, or download music and film clips," chief commercial officer Yiannos Michaelides added.

GO signed a contract with Nokia Siemens Networks last September, which launched a process to completely replace GO's existing radio mobile network with state-of-the-art, energy-efficient base stations, as well as to add new sites to expand coverage and improve network performance.