In 2014, the number of fixed internet accesses in Portugal increased by 10.4 percent, the highest growth since 2005. In December, there were about 2.83 million accesses.
ADSL remains the leading Internet access technology for fixed broadband (38.5 percent of the total), followed by cable modem (35.6 percent), and Internet over optical fibre - FTTH/FTTB (22 percent). The largest contribution to growth in the number of accesses has been made by optical fibre (increasing 36 percent in 2014 and 8 percent in the last quarter of the year), totalling 622 thousand customers. In absolute terms, the number of FTTH/FTTB accesses increased by 45 thousand in the 4th quarter, the largest increase on record.
The second largest contribution to the increase was made by LTE access at a fixed location, which increased by 26.1 percent over the previous quarter.
In the period being reported, Grupo PT retained a 48.5 percent share of accesses; Grupo NOS had a share of 35 percent and Cabovisão 5.3 percent, falling respectively by 2 percentage points, 1.2 percentage points and 0.8 percentage points over the last year. Vodafone was the only service provider to increase its share, to 10.6 percent in December, 4.1 percentage points more than in the same period of 2013. Grupo Altice reported a share of 5.5 percent of the accesses, falling by 0.8 percentage points in 2014.
In terms of traffic, MEO has a share of 43 percent, followed by NOS with 41.9 percent, and Vodafone with 8.8 percent. Grupo Altice is responsible for 5.2 percent of fixed broadband traffic.
As regards mobile broadband, there were 4.8 million users who actually used the service (increasing 6.8 percent from the previous quarter and 23.3 percent year-on-year). The growth in mobile broadband has mainly been driven by an increase in the number of smartphone users which already made up 52.4 percent of total mobile users this quarter (an increase of 9.6 percentage points over the same quarter of 2013).
In terms of active mobile broadband customers, MEO reported a share of 47.4 percent, followed by Vodafone with a share of 26.5 percent and NOS with 25.9 percent. In relation to the same period of 2013, Grupo NOS increased its share by four percentage points and MEO increased its share by two percentage points, while Vodafone registered a year on year decline of 6.1 percentage points.
Considering mobile broadband traffic, NOS has a share of 43.8 percent, followed by MEO with 29.8 percent, and Vodafone with 26.4 percent.
Broadband Internet access traffic increased by about 7 percent in the 4th quarter, while Internet access traffic from mobile connections increased by 0.6 percent, mainly due to traffic generated by cards/modem.
Average monthly traffic per broadband Internet access at a fixed location was reported at 46.5 GB, while average traffic generated per mobile broadband customer with actual use was 1.1 GB per month (6 GB per month in the case of cards/modem).
Revenues from the fixed access Internet service (stand-alone and bundles of services that include this service) totalled 1.194 billion euros (an increase of 14.5 percent versus the same period of 2013). Revenues from the mobile Internet access service reached 303.4 million euros in 2014, reflecting a year-on-year decline of 12.4 percent.
Consult the statistical report:
- Internet access service - 4th quarter 2014 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1349290
