Internet in Malta
Encyclopedia
The Republic of Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 has been involved with the Internet since the latter's early days.

The Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 country code
Country code
Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The best known of these is ISO 3166-1...

 top-level domain
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...

 (ccTLD) for Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 is .mt
.mt
.mt is the Internet country code top-level domain for Malta. It is sometimes used for Montana related websites.- Second-level domains :Registrations are at the third level beneath these names:* com.mt: commercial entities...

and is sponsored by NIC Malta . The .eu
.eu
.eu is the country code top-level domain for the European Union . Launched 7 December 2005, the domain is available for organisations in and residents of EU member states. The TLD is administered by EURid, a consortium consisting of the national ccTLD registry operators of Belgium, Sweden, Italy...

 domain is also used, as it is shared with other European Union member states.

Currently Internet access
Internet access
Many technologies and service plans for Internet access allow customers to connect to the Internet.Consumer use first became popular through dial-up connections in the 20th century....

 is available to businesses and home users in various forms, including dial-up, cable, DSL, and wireless.

Dial-up

Dial-up Internet access was first introduced in the Malta by various ISPs. This narrowband service has been almost entirely replaced by the new broadband technologies, and is generally only used as a backup.

Broadband

Commercial availability of broadband Internet in Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

, through ADSL and cable Internet
Cable internet
In telecommunications, cable Internet access, often shortened to cable Internet or simply cable, is a form of broadband Internet access that uses the cable television infrastructure. Like digital subscriber line and fiber to the premises services, cable Internet access provides network edge...

, has existed since 2000, and is accessible from all areas of the island. Broadband connectivity has become very widespread on the island, with many households opting for a broadband connection.

ADSL bandwidth is received through the Seabone Network and operated by DataStream
Datastream
Datastream is the name of a type of broadband network connection in the United Kingdom. Datastream is a wholesale product in which the wholesale customer can purchase connectivity between their own point of presence and a number of end users....

 and Vodafone Malta Ltd

The bandwidth is then sold to the various ISPs which in turn sell it to customers.

December 2005, DataStream
Datastream
Datastream is the name of a type of broadband network connection in the United Kingdom. Datastream is a wholesale product in which the wholesale customer can purchase connectivity between their own point of presence and a number of end users....

 merged with the ISP Maltanet, giving Maltanet a competitive edge over other ISPs. Both DataStream and Maltanet are subsidiaries of the national telephone company, GO Plc
GO (Malta)
GO p.l.c. is a provider of local and long distance telephone services, wireless service, cable television, and DSL Internet access. GO is based in Marsa, Malta.-History:...

.

Cable Internet is offered by only one ISP, Melita Plc. Melita - Internet (formerly branded as OnVol) is a division of the cable and digital television provider, Melita Plc. Melita - Internet also offer standard ADSL connections for businesses.

In Q3 2007 Vodafone launched a fixed WiMAX based offering for Internet access. This increased the competition in Malta. However since Q2/Q3 of 2011, this has been discontinued due to unsatisfactory results with the reliabilty of the WiMAX system, and is no longer offered to new customers.

In 2010 Melita (http://www.melita.com) launched the fastest internet service in Malta at 100Mbps per second
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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