Data compiled by the Instituto das Comunicações de Portugal (ICP) reveals that the new Fixed Telephone Service (FTS) providers carried 7.4% of all telephone traffic originated within FTS networks in Portugal during the first quarter of 2001, compared to 92.6% carried by PT Comunicações, the incumbent operator. In the same period, there were 43.3 telephone lines for every 100 inhabitants.
A total of 4.1 billion minutes of telephone traffic were generated in the fixed telephone network, corresponding to 2.6% growth between the last quarter of 2000 and the first quarter of 2001. The main driver of this growth was national calls, including Internet access connections. Such calls grew by 2.8% during this quarter. Outgoing international traffic, by contrast, fell by 3.2%.
A breakdown of these results by different types of traffic, reveals that the market share of new operators in international calls (in number of minutes) is 25.6% of the total, with PT Comunicações responsible for 74.4%. In terms of solely national traffic, the new operators have a 6.7% share compared to 93.3% for PT Comunicações.
A breakdown of the results by type of access, indicates that indirect access (pre-selection of a provider or call-to-call selection, by dialling of a code (10xy)) carried 6.8% of all conversation minutes originated in the fixed telephone network, of which 88.3% were national calls and 11.7% were calls made abroad.
The market shares of the incumbent operator and the new operators are not mirrored by the number of lines. At the end of the first quarter of 2001, PT Comunicações was responsible for 99.6% of all existing telephone lines (principal telephone accesses). The discrepancy between traffic volume and number of installed lines is due to the weight of indirect access (supported by a line that has already been installed) and the customer profile of the various operators in activity.
In addition to this fact, around 30% of direct accesses provided by the new operators use Fixed Wireless Access (FWA).
In March 2001, 28 entities were licensed to provide the Fixed Telephone Service, of which 12 are actually trading. Of these 12 providers, two only provide direct access services (Cabovisão and PT Comunicações) two only provide indirect access services (Global One and TMN) and eight provide both types of access (HLC, Jazztel, Maxitelsat, Novis, Oni Telecom, PT Prime, Telecel and Teleweb).
Indirect access to the Fixed Telephone Service is understood to mean the provision of a service carrying telephone calls by means of a provider to which the customer is not directly connected. This type of access is possible in two ways: by call-to-call selection, which implies the dialling of a code (10xy) every time that the user intends to make a call; or by means of pre-selecting the provider, a function that enables the customer's line to be programmed in order for the eligible calls to be carried by default by the provider previously selected by the customer.
On the other hand, direct access implies the installation of equipment in the customer's home.
Consult:
- Postal services https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=277884
