The fixed telephony network will be opened to competition on January 1. With this step, the process of liberalisation of the national telecommunications market will be concluded. On this date, Portuguese citizens will be given the opportunity to choose between various Fixed Telephony Service providers, via two types of access: direct and indirect.
From January 1, the new licensed operators are authorised to supply fixed network services identical to those currently provided by the historic operator, Portugal Telecom. This includes, of course, all types of call, together with the provision of services related to the fixed telephony service.
The access conditions to the market are identical for all operators, and include the following:
Direct Access
Corresponds to the most traditional means of access to the client. Consists in the installation of a telephone line to the location of the client's domicile, including, if necessary, the respective terminal equipment.
Once the local access network has been installed, it will be possible for the provider to offer local, regional, long-distance, international or fixed-mobile telephone calls, as well as access to data transmission services (Internet and others) and special services such as non-geographic numbers. Access to the client will be guaranteed via a proprietary infrastructure in the final section of the network, through the installation of cables or fixed wireless access equipment.
Indirect Access
This new type of access guarantees that all clients of any one Fixed Telephony Service provider (the so-called carrier, or traffic transporter) may access the services offered by other providers.
Contractual formalities are reduced to a minimum and call-by-call selection of the FTS provider for national and international calls is possible.
For this purpose, each FTS provider has a selection code that should be dialled before the receiver's telephone number. This code does not form part of the number, but is rather an 'entrance key' to the network of the alternative provider.
For example, if the client of any provider wishes to make a telephone connection from Lisbon to a telephone installed in Torre de Moncorvo, he should dial the selection code, followed by the receiver's number e.g. 10xy 279 123 456. In so doing, the client will forward the call to the provider identified by the code 10xy.
At the present time, the licensed operators and respective codes are as follows:
Provider and Selection Code
- Interoute - 1033
- Jazztel - 1030
- Global One - 1060
- Maxitel - 1099
- Novis - 1010
- Oni - 1050
- Optimus - 1093
- Portugal Telecom - 1020
- Telecel - 1091
- Teleweb - 1011
- TMN - 1096
- Madem - Has not yet been assigned a code
