Today has seen the publication of the report of the global study evaluating the quality of service of access to the Internet through broadband ADSL and cable - , from the perspective of the user. This study was carried out by ANACOM, in partnership with MARKTEST and with the support of CONVEX.
The study was carried between 11 October and 13 November 2007, with the analysis of broadband offers (ADSL and cable) for the residential segment of the market, provided by providers of access to the Internet (ISP - Internet Service Providers) Telepac/ Sapo, Clixgest/ Novis, TV Cabo and Cabovisão, representing over 90 per cent of the available offer in Portugal.
To evaluate this service, indicators were used which allow the assessment of the performance of transmission and reception of files, through HTTP (HTTP file transfer) protocol and Internet browsing (HTTP Browsing).
Among the results, it is seen that the download speed indicator for loading all the pages of a website again recorded significantly higher average values when the ISPs concerned are national than when the pages are hosted internationally. The download speed for transferring files by HTTP (HTTP file transfer) gives higher average values when compared with the download speed of all the pages of a website, constituting the best indicator among those considered in the study, in view of the assessment of the effectively available bandwidth. As seen in Internet browsing (HTTP Browsing) user tests, as well as in the transfer of files, the average download speed is lower for international ISPs, possibly due to the bandwidth of the interconnection effectively available to these ISPs.
This study saw the involvement of FCCN - Fundação para a Computação Científica Nacional (National Scientific Computing Foundation) and APRITEL - Associação dos Operadores de Telecomunicações (Association of Telecommunications Operators) the DGC - Direcção Geral do Consumidor (General-Directorate of the Consumer) and the ISPs covered by the study. Their comments were also considered in the definition of methodology.
Consult:
- Evaluation of the Internet Access Service - Fixed Broadband, ANACOM, February 2008 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=564246
