ANACOM has conducted a further evaluation study on the quality of voice and video-telephone services and of mobile network coverage provided by the GSM and WCDMA (UMTS) networks of OPTIMUS, TMN and VODAFONE in the main urban centres and along the main roads of Portugal's autonomous regions of Azores and Madeira. The study was completed between May and July 2011.
OPTIMUS does not currently provide WCDMA coverage in the Azores and has a GSM presence on only five of the nine islands. Even where it does provide GSM coverage, this coverage is patchy, to the extent that use of services in large geographical areas is not possible. TMN does not provide WCDMA coverage on Flores and Corvo, while VODAFONE, which also provides no WCDMA coverage on Corvo, only provides coverage of a small area on Flores. On the islands covered by the networks of the operators, GSM coverage is, in general, significantly more extensive than WCDMA coverage, whereas there continue to be large areas where radio coverage by both technologies remains poor or even non-existent, especially along main roads and in the Azores.
Performance of voice services is reported as good in urban areas. Along main roads, especially in the Azores, performance deteriorates, especially in terms of the Service Accessibility and Call Completion Ratio indicators.
The performance of the video-telephone service is reported as good in urban centres, with the exception of OPTIMUS in the Azores, where, as mentioned above, it provides no WCDMA network. Along main roads, the performance of the video-telephone service is less satisfactory, especially in terms of Service Accessibility, owing to areas of non-existent WCDMA radio coverage. The lowest values for this indicator were reported in the Azores, with levels not exceeding 68.2 percent and 64 percent in the case of TMN and VODAFONE respectively, whereas in the case of OPTIMUS a value of zero is reported for this indicator.
Consult:
- Evaluation report on the quality of service of GSM and WCDMA mobile networks (UMTS) https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1114092
