According to a new survey, more than half of people who measured their internet speed at home found it to be lower than advertised.
The Malta Communications Authority’s survey showed a growing awareness of service quality with 44% of 800 households surveyed this year saying they had tested their download speeds, up from 23% in 2019.
Among respondents who performed download speed tests, 44% said the measured speed was equal to that advertised by the service provider, while 38% found the speed to be slightly lower and 18% found much lower speeds.
The survey was conducted by telephone between June and August. The randomly selected households were stratified according to their geographic region, age composition and operator market share.
Most households have internet
The results showed that almost all households – 95% – have an internet connection, three percentage points less than that recorded in 2019.
A quarter of those without fixed broadband used mobile broadband instead, while the rest were households whose residents viewed the service as too complicated or unnecessary.
Download speed was a key factor influencing choice, with 34% of households surveyed considering it the main factor – up 11 percentage points from 2019.
Price and download speed are the second and third factors, respectively, for 27% and 16% of households surveyed.
81% of households with fixed Internet access perceive their connection speed as sufficient for their daily needs. Customers were largely satisfied with the quality of service, with 74% saying they were satisfied with their current Internet service, while 19% were indifferent.
66% had problems with the Internet
Meanwhile, the percentage of respondents saying they are dissatisfied has increased by two percentage points since 2019 to 7%.
66% of respondents experienced performance issues with their fixed Internet service in the past 12 months.
Of these, 22% reported more than five defects, 50% reported between two and five defects, and 29% reported one defect. Most of those who reported defects – 62%, said their concerns were well addressed.
86% of the households surveyed knew their monthly fixed internet expenses. 42% of them say they spend more than €50 per month. 35% spent between €30 and €49 per month.
Under 18s spend more time online
57% of surveyed households had at least one family member under the age of 18.
In 36% of cases, these household members spent three to five hours online. People in this age group were more likely to participate in entertainment-related activities (31%). Next come video games (26%) and games for educational purposes (14%). It should be noted that the interviews took place during the summer months.
The most commonly used apps for chatting over fixed broadband were Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, while the most frequently used content apps were Facebook and YouTube, followed by Netflix, Instagram and Titkok.
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