Traffic in postal services operated in competition reached 61.8 million volumes during the third quarter of 2003, equivalent to 53% more than in the previous quarter, indicates data from the Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM). Most of this traffic (54.3 million volumes) was national and was mainly routed by the universal service provider - the CTT.
Data collected by the regulator indicate that in the field of postal services operated in competition some 4.5 million objects of express mail were handled during the three months under review. The remaining services, including the mailing of correspondence, newspapers, books, catalogues and other periodicals, as well as postal orders within set parameters, accounted for the routing of 57.3 million objects.
In the latter service category the universal service provider obtained a 96.6% market share, measured by the number of routed objects. The CTT's share drops to 54% when only express mail services are considered.
The imbalance increases when service revenue shares are assessed, with the CTT accounting for a 99.2% share in the remaining services operated in competition and 43.9% in express mail.
In absolute values, revenues from postal services operated in competition, provided by all postal operators, reached 94.6 million euros during the third quarter of the year, 45% more than in the previous quarter. Some 43% of this total was from express mail services.
During the period under review there were 11 entities authorised to provide express mail services and four licensed to provide the remaining services open to competition.
The portfolio of services included in the area not reserved to the universal service concessionaire, and thus open to competition, was expanded from the second to third quarter of the year. This naturally had some impact on the evolution of traffic from one quarter to the next.
Even so, the presented data indicates that despite the postal sector's gradual liberalisation only one of the segments open to other providers - that of express mail - is a competitive market today.
Consult:
- Postal services https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=277884
