Telecommunications company GO has announced it is raising the price of its entry-level home internet package while promising to increase download and upload speeds.
Earlier this week, the company informed customers it was “revisiting” one of its home internet packages, with prices due to increase by €2 per month from the start of March.
Announcing the increase, GO said it was tripling download speeds to 300 megabits per second (mbps) and doubling upload speeds to 30mbps.
Should customers not agree to the new terms, they will be able to cancel their contract without penalty within 30 days of being informed of the change.
In comments to Times of Malta, a spokesperson for GO said the updated tariffs only applied to its entry-level home internet package. It said the package had not seen price changes since being introduced in 2019.
“The new tariff reflects the upgrade of this entry-level product... For a small price increment, customers are now enjoying triple the download speeds and double the upload speeds”, the spokesperson said.
Stressing that homes and businesses were “increasingly dependent” on high-speed internet, which was in “much higher” demand, he said the company had invested over €100 million in its True Fibre network over the past five years.
“Rolling out this network required a redesign of our product portfolio to be able to maximise the capabilities of this network and to satisfy customers’ changing needs and demands.”
In December 2023, the Malta Communications Authority (MCA) rapped telecoms operators for including a ‘price indexation’ clause in their contracts, allowing mid-contract price increases while forcing customers to pay an early termination fee if they cancelled their contract.
At the time, GO said its contracts had never included the clause, however, which is now limited by the authority to only being applicable to contracts of maximum six months.
Asked about the recent increases in relation to the clause, the company said they were “completely separate”.
It said the changes are not inflation-driven.
“We are simply replacing an old product with a new one,” the spokesperson said.
In November, GO announced it had reached 90% nationwide coverage for its Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network while noting its business customers accounted for 40% of the company’s revenue. In March last year, the telecommunications provider registered an all-time high revenue of €235.9 million, an increase of 9.9% over 2022.