MCA’s reaction to media reports on worldwide test of broadband speeds

The Malta Communications Authority (MCA) recognises the utility of the tools provided by M-Lab (as quoted by ‘Cable.co.uk’), particularly the Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) which provides insights into broadband performance. As M-Lab highlight, this tool is particularly useful to diagnose network issues; however, its efficacy for benchmarking performance across countries is severely limited.

Nonetheless, the MCA notes that benchmarks that seek to compare the performance across different countries necessitate strict methodology requirements that go beyond the functionality of NDT. These would include information such as the number of samples by fixed and mobile technologies, as well as objective reference to the location of the servers against which the benchmarks are performed.

The MCA notes that the source did not publish such relevant methodology information in conjunction with this country ranking, thus seriously bringing into question the significance and reliability of this exercise.

The MCA, through its quality of service framework and monitoring programme setup in 2013, ensures that through consistent and comparable methodologies, Internet service providers in Malta meet the Internet access speeds attached to their offers.