Analysis of these services has been subdivided into two paragraphs, with the first dealing with internet access services supported by the IP (Internet Protocol) and the second with data transmission services supported on other platforms.
Internet access services
The most relevant market options for this service in Portugal in 2002 were access via telephone line with analogic transmission, access via telephone line with digital transmission and access via coaxial cable (the provision of internet access via cable distribution networks ? cable-modem ? gained significance in late 1999 with the presentation of high quality service packages and prices competitive with other broadband accesses via the fixed network, namely ADSL). Access via telephone line with digital transmission was possible in two ways: via ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network), which constituted the digital option on copper-pair lines most used in the EU, and also the connection type preferred by the residential and SME segments, while the dial-up type connections are the most frequent in the residential segment; or by DSL (digital subscriber line or xDSL) technologies, of which there are a number of variants, the most widespread being ADSL (Asymmetric DSL), which is offered by the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to the general public with support in the wholesale offer of PT Comunicações, designated the ?PT ADSL Network?.
In terms of the penetration rate, internet access service in Portugal evidenced a very positive evolution over the past five years. This growth was particularly accentuated from the year 2000 on, stimulated by dial-up accesses; the penetration rate reached 50 percent at the end of 2002, above the European Union average (39 percent). In 1999 the service?s penetration in Portugal (6.5 percent) was well below the European average (18 percent).
At the end of 2002 about 95 percent of all service customers were dial-up access customers. From 2001 to 2002, the growth rate of these customers was about 46 percent.
The number of customers with broadband Internet access reached about 260,000 at the end of 2002, representing about 5 percent of all existing customers. Of these, about 208,000 were cable access (cable-modem) customers, corresponding to about 80 percent of all broadband Internet customers.
At the end of 2002 there were about 52,000 ADSL customers, representing the remaining 20 percent of broadband Internet customers. The pace of growth of this option?s customers increased from the third quarter of 2002, after ICP-ANACOM intervention in the market with the aim of guaranteeing all operators conditions of equality in the preparation of ADSL retail offers, specifically with regard to the historic operator.
The penetration rate of broadband Internet access service (by ADSL and by cable-modem) was at the end of 2002 about 3 percent (at the end of 2001 it was about 1 percent). In July 2003 the same rate stood at 3.6 percent.
At operator level, the market for Internet access service in Portugal comprises a large number of small ISPs and only a few big providers. At the end of 2002 there was a total of 57 providers registered to provide this service, 32 of them operational. Only some of them provided the service via broadband accesses (cable and ADSL): 12 providers offered the service via cable-modem (among them eight pertaining to TV Cabo Portugal of the PT group, which have meanwhile merged), while nine entities offered ADSL access (two of which only began commercial provision at the end of 2002).
Other data transmission services
Other data transmission services with significant influence in Portugal are packet data transmission services. Among them are two major groups: services provided by use of the Frame Relay protocol and services provided by the use of other protocol types, namely X.25 and X.28.
Solutions based on Frame Relay protocols, used mainly by the medium-sized and large companies, have witnessed substantial growth of the corresponding number of accesses, while other packet data transmission services have generally seen a drop in the number of installed accesses over the past five years, particularly at the level of switched accesses.
At the end of 2002 there were 14 operational entities exclusively authorised to provide packet data transmission services.
