Major internet service providers said they have been able to cope with the increased demand for internet services at the height of the pandemic in March, despite mounting complaints from users.
While confirming a major increase in demand for online services, Epic, Melita and GO said they have bolstered their services enough to satisfy their customers’ needs.
The partial lockdown brought about by COVID-19 forced tens of thousands to work from home, while children had to resort to homeschooling once again. Several users have complained about a slowdown of service or even interruptions in their service, amid unprecedented demand.
“Get your act together Melita, it’s a disgrace to leave most of your clients without internet service!” one angry user posted online.
“What a disgraceful service, no internet for a week! We wasted our money using 3G and 4G on our phones and your technician was supposed to call us but never did!” said another angry user about Epic.
“Am I the only one having slow internet from GO for 10 days now?” another user said.
Times of Malta has also received several complaints from users.
But the three major communications companies denied an increase in complaints related to the quality of their internet services, although all companies did admit to an increased number of customers contacting them.
A spokesperson for Melita insisted that the increase in internet usage by its domestic customers has had no impact on internet speeds and connectivity.
Our front-liners continued working throughout the pandemic and operations continued as usual
“The reasons for increased customer contact include providing support for families seeking to optimise their Wi-Fi to connect and to use multiple devices simultaneously and queries relating to MS teams, which is not related to our internet service,” Melita said.
The spokesperson also explained that Melita anticipated the increase in demand by increasing their capacity, without giving further details.
A spokesperson for Epic denied having any issues with providing internet services and instead argued that the company’s “superior fibre technology” offers higher upload speeds versus comparable connections.
“We are accelerating our investments into both our mobile and fixed broadband services to help us maintain our mobile network leadership and to cater for the future needs of our customers as well,” the spokesperson added.
GO insisted that the company “never slows down speeds to cater for increased demand”.
“Communications are considered an essential service; our front-liners continued working throughout the pandemic and operations continued as usual. We have sufficient bandwidth to cater for this demand,” the spokesperson added.
A spokesperson for Microsoft Teams said that usage of MS Teams in Malta’s public education system increased from 7,000 in February 2020 to 68,000 in February 2021, or 9.7 times as many users before the pandemic.
The number is a concrete example of the massive surge in online conferencing practices.
The spokesperson stated that this corresponds to “skyrocketing” figures for users across the world who turned to Microsoft Teams and other similar apps such as Zoom to communicate.