At the request of the Government and within the scope of its assigned responsibilities in providing assistance to the Government, ANACOM will, as of today, promote a public consultation on coverage of the national territory by very high capacity fixed networks and on options for the installation, management, operation and maintenance of these networks in “white areas” with the use of public funding, particularly funding from the European Union.
The final objective is to guarantee access to very high capacity networks (Gigabit) by the entire population, with the purpose of ensuring coverage of the entire national territory of Portugal, guaranteeing coverage of all households by Gigabit networks by 2030. Priority is given to areas with low population density, favouring territorial cohesion and the development of inland areas.
In this way, the aim is to improve the current situation in the country, where market failures persist in the coverage of the national territory, especially in less populated areas, and so facilitate the digital transition and promote economic, social and territorial cohesion.
This public consultation aims to gather inputs from all interested parties on matters associated with the identification and designation of “white areas”, i.e. areas lacking coverage by very high-capacity fixed networks, and on the options to be taken in the development of this type of networks in these “white areas”, with use of public funding.
ANACOM has completed a preliminary identification of “white areas”, based on percentage network coverage per statistic subsection (territorial unit), based on information obtained from operators. Accordingly, the preliminary information of the base scenario considered in the analysis conducted by ANACOM leads to the identification of around 45 thousand statistic subsections as “white areas”, covering a total of around 286 thousand primary-residence conventional dwellings.
ANACOM has made a map available on its website (INTERACTIVE MAPhttps://anacom.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/sidebar/index.html?appid=4fe9c54079b7476abde22b5cb67f080e) showing the areas preliminarily identified as “white areas” for the baseline scenario described above (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 – Interactive map to search and show “white areas” contained in the base scenario (in Portuguese)
https://anacom.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/sidebar/index.html?appid=4fe9c54079b7476abde22b5cb67f080e
The map is illustrative only; the identification of the "white areas" is not definitive and is limited to the criteria adopted for the base scenario, i.e. inclusion of areas with coverage of up to 10% of the number of dwellings in each statistic subsection (greyed areas on the map).
In areas not marked on the map as “white areas”, network coverage ranges from 11% to 100%, and may not therefore correspond to full coverage.
Preliminary information from the baseline scenario (see Figure 2) points to the existence of “white areas” in 299 municipalities (97% of all municipalities) and in 1,973 parishes (64% of all parishes). The “white areas” considered include statistic subsections with primary-residence conventional dwellings and, where these do not exist, industrial, commercial or agricultural facilities.
|
NUTS II (LOTS) |
Number of municipalities covered |
% of municipalities covered |
Number of parishes covered |
% of parishes covered |
|
North |
85 |
99% |
812 |
57% |
|
Centre |
94 |
94% |
638 |
66% |
|
Metropolitan Area of Lisbon |
18 |
100% |
79 |
67% |
|
Alentejo |
58 |
100% |
269 |
90% |
|
Algarve |
16 |
100% |
67 |
100% |
|
Autonomous Region of Madeira |
11 |
100% |
16 |
30% |
|
Autonomous Region of the Azores |
17 |
89% |
92 |
59% |
|
TOTAL |
299 |
97% |
1973 |
64% |
All those interested in participating in the public consultation may send contributions to ANACOM by email to lg.coberturas@anacom.ptmailto:lg.coberturas@anacom.pt. Comments (in writing and in Portuguese) must be received no later than 7 February 2022.
Once the consultation has been concluded, ANACOM will produce a report containing a summary of the contributions received, which it will present to the Government and make public on its website.
When publishing the results of the consultation, ANACOM will safeguard the confidentiality of items duly identified and substantiated by respondents as confidential.
See:
Public Consultation Document (in Portuguese)
- “Map of Areas Lacking Coverage by High Capacity Networks” (INTERACTIVE MAPhttps://anacom.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/sidebar/index.html?appid=4fe9c54079b7476abde22b5cb67f080e) (in Portuguese)
List of Statistic Subsections by parish (in Portuguese)
Video tutorial for viewing the Interactive Map (in Portuguese)
