Executive Summary
Penetration of mobile services with actual use reached 129.5 per 100 inhabitants
At the end of 2023, the penetration rate of mobile accesses stood at 180.0 per 100 inhabitants. If only mobile accesses with actual use are considered1 (excluding M2M2), the penetration rate in Portugal would be 129.5. In addition, if accesses used exclusively for data services and Internet access (cards associated with PC/tablet/pen/router) were also excluded, the penetration rate would be 122.6 per 100 inhabitants.
Mobile accesses sold together with fixed services (i.e. in convergent packages) had a penetration rate of 57.7 per 100 inhabitants3.
The number of mobile accesses authorised for the use of mobile services was 18.8 million. Of these, 13.6 million (71.9% of the total) were actually used. Excluding the number of PC/tablet/pen/router accesses, the number of mobile accesses was 12.8 million.
Number of users increased by 0.4% in the last 12 months
The number of subscribers actually using the service increased by 54 thousand (+0.4%) compared to the end of 2022. This increase is explained by the greater use of post-paid and hybrid plans (+5.9% in the last 12 months), which account for 68.8% of all accesses actually used. The number of prepaid plans decreased by 9.9% year-on-year.
Residential users account for 71.6% of total active accesses
At the end of the 2Q2023, mobile accesses by residential users accounted for 71.6% of total active accesses, while accesses by business users accounted for 28.4%.
Average traffic per access decreased by 5.9%
Mobile voice traffic in minutes decreased by 4.4% compared to 2022. The number of minutes of traffic per mobile voice access in 2023 averaged 216 per month, or about 7 minutes per day. Compared to last year, the average monthly traffic decreased by 13 minutes (-5.9%).
The average duration of calls was 2 minutes 55 seconds per call, six seconds less (-3.2%) than last year.
MBB penetration reached 99.9 per 100 inhabitants
The number of actual users of the mobile Internet access service totalled 10.5 million, 6.3% more than in the same period last year. This figure corresponds to a penetration rate of around 99.9 per 100 inhabitants (+5.9 p.p. compared to 2022).
PC/tablet/pen/router users increased by 2.3%
The increase in the number of users is the result of growth in both mobile phone internet users (+6.6%) and PC/tablet/pen/router internet access users (+2.3%). The growth of these latter accesses, which had registered year-on-year increases of more than 10% since mid-2021, recorded its lowest year-on-year growth since 2020.
Mobile Internet traffic increased by 39.2%
Mobile broadband (MBB) Internet access traffic increased by 39.2% compared to 2022. This growth is explained by an increase in the number of users and, above all, by an increase in the intensity of use.
Average monthly traffic reached 10 GB/month
Average monthly traffic per active mobile Internet user increased by 30.0% year-on-year. Each MBB user consumed an average of 10.0 GB per month. Average monthly traffic generated by PC/tablet/pen/router reached 33.5 GB (+10.5%).
M2M accesses fall by 17.1%
At the end of 2023 there were around 1.2 million active mobile M2M accesses, a decrease by 17.1% compared to the same period last year. These accesses represented 6.2% of total active accesses.
Significant growth in international roaming Internet traffic
Roaming traffic showed a decrease in voice traffic compared to the same period last year(-5.2%). On the other hand, Internet traffic grew strongly (+49.7% for roaming out traffic and +40.5% for roaming in traffic).
Internet access when roaming in was three times higher than when roaming out
In 2023, the degree of coverage of traffic in roaming in minutes by roaming out was 114.3%. For Internet access, roaming in traffic was 3.3 times higher than roaming out traffic.
Provider shares
MEO was the operator with the highest share of active mobile accesses with actual use (38.1%), followed by NOS (29.8%) and Vodafone (28.3%). NOWO and Lycamobile followed with shares of 2.0% and 1.9% respectively.
Compared with the same period last year, the shares of NOS and Lycamobile in mobile access increased by 1.1 p.p. and 0.4 p.p. respectively, while the shares of MEO and Vodafone decreased by 1.0 p.p. and 0.7 p.p. respectively. NOWO’s share remained unchanged.
The level of concentration, as measured by the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, remained high, although the downward trend that began in 2014 continued.
In terms of share of mobile Internet subscribers, MEO had 35.5%, followed by NOS with 32.7%, Vodafone with 27.4%, NOWO with 2.2% and Lycamobile with 2.1%. Compared with the end of last year, the share of Lycamobile and NOS increased by 1.1 p.p. and 0.9 p.p. respectively, while the shares of Vodafone, MEO and NOWO decreased by 1.5 p.p., 0.4 p.p. and 0.1 p.p. respectively.
NOS had the largest share of mobile broadband Internet traffic (35.7%), followed by Vodafone (35.4%), MEO, NOWO and Lycamobile (28.1%, 0.6% and 0.3% respectively). Compared to the same period last year, NOS and MEO’s share decreased by 0.8 p.p. and 0.1 p.p. respectively, while Vodafone’s share increased by 0.7 p.p.
2.3 million users of 5G mobile Internet
Following the 5G auction, ANACOM issued at the end of 2021 titles supporting rights of use for frequencies (RUF) to six operators: Dense Air, Dixarobil (Digi Portugal), MEO, NOS, NOWO and Vodafone.
Following the award of the above titles, operators announced a number of commercial offers related to 5G. Typically, the 5G option comes with an additional price of EUR 5/month, except in the case of offers with higher traffic caps, where users can access 5G without additional payments. However, the operators allowed free access to 5G, initially for a limited period, for all customers with 5G-enabled equipment, and in January 2024 the three operators announced that they would make 5G available on all tariffs at no extra cost.
Based on available information, it is estimated that by the end of 2023, 17.1% of mobile service users and 22.1% of mobile internet users were using the 5G mobile network. The number of mobile internet users using 5G was 2.3 million, resulting in a penetration rate of 22.1 per 100 inhabitants.
5G traffic made up 10.3% of total mobile data traffic
It is estimated that, in 2023, traffic routed on 5G networks represented around 10.3% of total mobile data traffic, reaching 5,4 GB monthly per 5G mobile Internet user.
1 Active mobile accesses, such as subscription plans, minute plans, monthly payment plans convertible into traffic, etc., that are entitled to use one of the contracted services and actually used one of the contracted services during the reporting period.
2 Machine-to-Machine (M2M) applications use mobile networks and the Internet to operate, monitor and interconnect machines and devices (i.e., tele-alarm, tele-security, telemetry, etc.). They are associated with the so-called Internet of Things.
3 This is a portion of the 180.0 per 100 inhabitants referred to in the previous paragraph.
