At the end of 2019, over half of fixed broadband internet accesses were made using optical fibre (FTTH), 50.6% (compared to 45.2% at the end of 2018). The number of accesses using this technology reached two million accesses, 17.4% more or 297 thousand new accesses compared to the previous year.
Fibre was the form of access that most contributed to the total number of fixed broadband accesses, having grown by 4.8% (plus 183 thousand accesses) in 2019, reaching 3.97 million. Accesses supported by cable TV networks also increased by 1.3% (plus 15 thousand accesses) in 2019. On the other hand, the downward trend in accesses via ADSL intensified, which fell by 20.4% compared to the same period in the previous year, corresponding to minus 124 thousand accesses. Accesses supported over LTE at a fixed location also decreased, falling by 2.2% (minus 6 thousand accesses).
Optical fibre was the main form of access to fixed broadband Internet (50.6% at the end of 2019), with the remaining forms being distributed as follows: cable modem (30.1%), ADSL (12.2%) and LTE at a fixed location (7%)
Analysing the traffic, it can be seen that the monthly average for fixed Internet increased 22.5% compared to the previous year, having reached 131.2 GB/month in 2019. The trend towards an increase in traffic volume became more pronounced as of mid-2016, which may be associated with the launch of streaming video applications (e.g. Netflix, NPlay, FOXPlay, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Portugal). In total, fixed broadband Internet access traffic grew 29.1% in 2019, reaching 5.96 million TB.
The growth in the number of accesses was positively reflected in the penetration rate of residential fixed broadband customers, which rose to 80.6 per 100 private households at the end of 2019, 4.3 percentage points more than in the previous year.
Regarding the structure of the service markets analysed, there were four entities with important subscriber shares: MEO (40.3%), the NOS Group (35.7%), Vodafone (20%) and Grupo NOWO/Onitelecom (3.7%). Compared to 2018, Vodafone was the provider whose share of accesses increased the most in relative terms (plus 0.8 percentage points). NOS's share decreased by 0.9 points.
MEO was also the main Internet provider supported by FTTH and ADSL, with shares of 55.9% and 89.5%, respectively, at the end of the year. The NOS Group was the main Internet access provider supported by cable TV networks (87.8%) and mobile networks at a fixed location (64.1%).
If only residential accesses are considered, MEO had the highest share of subscribers (38.7%), followed by the NOS Group (38%) and Vodafone (19%). Vodafone and MEO's shares increased by 0.9 and 0.6 points, respectively, while NOS's share decreased by 1.4 percentage points.
Consult the statistical report:
- Internet access service at a fixed location 2019 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1519791
