Executive summary
92% of households had some form of fixed electronic communications service
In 2023, the vast majority of Portuguese households reported having some kind of fixed electronic communications service (92.3%), according to data from the Survey on the Use of Information and Communication Technologies by Households1, which allows to measure users’ perceptions of access to electronic communications services.
The most widely used service was pay-TV signal distribution (PTV, 88,3%), followed by fixed Internet access (fixed IAS, 83.8%).
Fixed telephone service (FTS) had the lowest penetration (80.7%)2 and almost half of the households with access to this service said they did not use it (48.6%)3.
Mobile broadband on a mobile phone or PC/tablet/pen/router (MBB) was used by 49.5% of households.
89% of households with Internet access
Internet access services (fixed or mobile) were used by 89.0% of households, 0.8 percentage points more than the previous year and 8.1 percentage points more than in 2019. This growth was driven by higher Internet usage by households following the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in 2020.
Portugal has moved closer to the European Union (EU27) average and was 4.1 p.p. below the European average in 2023.
From an individual perspective, around 85.8% of individuals reported having used the Internet in the three months prior to the interview (1.3 p.p. more than the previous year and 5.7 p.p. less than the European average).
Majority of households used all three fixed services, with or without MBB
The most common combination of services used by households (not necessarily as a bundle) was FTS, fixed broadband (FBB), PTV and MBB4 (40.5%), followed by the three fixed services FTS+FBB+PTV (32.2%). The third most popular combination of services, which did not include fixed telephone service, consisted of FBB+ MBB+PTV (4.8%).
86% of families had bundled offers, mostly with integrated MTS
In 2023, 86.4% of households reported having bundled offers, 0.8 p.p. more than last year.
PTV was the service most frequently subscribed to in bundled offers (95.9% of households with bundled services), followed by FBB (92.2%) and FTS (74.9%).
The presence of mobile services in bundled offers is becoming more common. Around 74.9% of households with a service bundle reported that their bundle included Mobile Telephone Service (MTS), 69.4% Internet via mobile phone and 10.7% MBB via PC/tablet/pen/router.
Higher use of services in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and the Autonomous Regions, by people who are younger, better educated, employed, students and with higher income
The Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Lisbon M.A.) and the Autonomous Regions of the Azores (A.R. Azores) and Madeira (A.R. Madeira) recorded a higher proportion of households with access to fixed electronic communications services and bundled services. In the particular case of PTV, IAS and bundled services, penetration in these regions was above 90%. For fixed IAS, penetration in these regions was between 88% and 90% and for FTS between 85% and 88%.
The regional disparities in MBB penetration were smaller. The regions of Lisbon M.A., A.R. Madeira and Algarve recorded MBB penetration of 55.9% or more.
Individuals who are younger, better educated, employed or a student and have a higher income tend to report higher penetration of electronic communication services.
Fixed/mobile substitution, financial issues, digital literacy and non-use were the main barriers to accessing services
In terms of non-use of electronic communications services, the most frequently reported reason for households not having FTS at home was mostly fixed/mobile substitution: “using a mobile phone” (75.6%).
The main reasons for not using PTV are financial (38.7% say it is “too expensive”) and not finding the service useful (29.3% say “free channels are enough” and 20.1% say “no time or not in the habit of watching TV”), with the latter reason increasing in importance compared to last year (+3.5 p.p.).
The main reason for families not having access to the Internet was related to digital literacy: “not knowing how to use it” (45.2%), followed by financial reasons related to the high cost of access and equipment (16.4% and 9.7% respectively). Not using the service was also identified as a barrier to use, although less frequently.
Over 55s more likely to not use IAS and PTV
In the case of PTV and FTS, those with a lower level of education or in a situation of unemployment or retirement registered the highest percentage of non-use of these services.
The older population is more likely to have never used the IAS or not to have PTV. Non-use of the FTS also tends to be higher among the population aged 65 and over. On the other hand, households with a lower income have a higher rate of non-use of electronic communications services, reaching 24.9% for FTS, 16.7% for PTV and 16.8% for IAS.
People living in the Alentejo, North and Centre regions had the highest proportions of access to IAS, PTV and FTS services.
Internet access available to almost all medium and large enterprises
In the business segment, according to the European Commission (EC), based on the Sample Survey on Information and Communication Technologies Usage in Enterprises, the penetration rate of IAS (fixed and mobile) was 87.8% for micro enterprises and 96.6% for small enterprises. Almost all medium and large companies had an Internet access service.
Among companies with 10 or more persons employed, FBB penetration was 95.0% (1.1 p.p. above the EU27 average). FBB penetration in Portugal was higher than the EU27 average in almost all company sizes with 10 or more persons employed and in most economic sectors.
In terms of MBB, the latest data for 2022 show that around 69.9% of micro-companies and 85.8% of companies with 10 or more employees provided their employees with portable devices that allow a mobile Internet connection for work purposes. The annual growth in MBB penetration was strongest in micro-companies (+20.6 p.p.), and companies with 10 or more employees saw the largest annual increase over the last decade (+15.2 p.p.).
1 The Survey on the Use of Information and Communication Technologies by Households, 2023, includes a set of questions proposed by ANACOM and collected by INE (Statistics Portugal) between 4 May and 31 July 2023. This information reflects users’ perceptions of access to, and barriers to, different electronic communications services and may differ from information obtained directly from providers.
2 The questions involved have changed, so it is not possible to make a comparison with last year.
3 In this report, the distinction between penetration rate and usage rate is only made in the case of FTS, as for the other services, namely PTV, IAS at a fixed location and MBB, it is assumed that a family subscribing to these services will tend to use them.
4 The Mobile Telephone Service (MTS) is not part of this combination. However, information from INE’s Survey on the Use of Information and Communication Technologies by Households, 2022, shows that the use of MTS covered the overwhelming majority of the population aged 16 to 74 (97%).
