At the end of the second quarter of (2Q2010), there were 15.87 million active mobile stations associated with post-paid, pre-paid and hybrid tariff plans, 0.3 percent more than in the previous quarter. Of these, around 82 percent saw actual use in the last month of the quarter, around 0.7 percentage points less than in 1Q2010. If cards/modems used exclusively for broadband Internet access are excluded from the total of mobile stations, the number of active mobile stations and user devices in actual use during 2nd Quarter 2010 is reported at 11.9 million.
In 2nd Quarter 2010, post-paid plans represented 16.2 percent of total plans, pre-paid plans represented around 71.9 percent and combined/hybrid plans around 11.9 percent.
The penetration of the mobile telephony service was reported at 149.2 per 100 inhabitants. According to available information (1st Quarter 2010), the penetration rate reported in Portugal (148.7 per 100 inhabitants) remained above the EU average (122.9 per 100 inhabitants).
The number of active users who actually use services which are characteristic of mobile broadband (i.e. video-telephony, broadband data transmission, mobile TV) totalled around 3.6 million, 13.5 percent more than in the previous quarter. These users constitute 27.6 percent of all mobile stations in actual use.
Of all the users of the broadband service who recorded traffic in the last month of the period being reported, around 32 percent are users of the broadband Internet access service using cards/modems.
In 2nd Quarter 2010, an average of 61 calls each month were reported per active mobile station in actual use, excluding cards used for mobile broadband Internet access. Around 42 of the calls made were made to the same operator as that used to originate the call and 11 to another provider of the same service.
The number of conversation minutes originating on mobile networks during 2Q10 totalled 4.9 billion minutes, increasing by 13.5 percent over the same period of the previous year, exceeding the rate of growth reported in the number of active mobile stations. The introduction of plans which allow free calls between subscribers has been a driver of the growth seen and of the increase in the weight of on-net traffic in terms of total traffic.
During the quarter being reported, more than 6.5 billion text messages were sent, 2.3 percent more than in 2nd Quarter 2009. The average number of messages sent per month by each subscriber was reported at 302.
With regard to multimedia messages, users of the mobile service sent around 30.3 million MMS messages. The number of users using the multimedia message service represents around 11 percent of the total of mobile stations with actual use. As such, it is reported that each user sent an average of 7 multimedia messages per month.
The number of users of the mobile television service totalled 71 thousand (around 2 percent of all mobile stations with actual use of 3G services). Each user made use of this service 6 times per month. Meanwhile, it is reported that the number of video-calls made totalled 1.5 million.
In the quarter being reported roaming in traffic recorded a increase of 52.1 percent over the previous quarter in terms of the number of calls. The second quarter of each year is normally marked by a rise in roaming in traffic, since it is normally associated with the Easter holiday period. Furthermore, a visit to Portugal by the Pope Bento XVI in May 2010 brought many foreign visitors to the country and may have contributed to the spike in traffic seen this quarter.
Roaming out traffic also increased over the quarter. Compared to the same quarter of 2009, the number of roaming out calls increased by 9.8 percent, with some recovery seen since 1Q09. The average number of users of the international roaming service outside Portugal represents around 6.8 per cent of the total of active mobile stations in actual use.
Consult:
- Mobile Services - 2nd quarter 2010 (2nd edition) https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1047410
