Number of 5G base stations installed in Portugal increased by 35% in Q4 2022

After the start of the commercial offer and the installation of the first base stations associated to the 5^th generation of mobile networks, at the end of 2021, it is important to periodically (quarterly) assess the development witnessed in the implementation of these next generation mobile communications networks.

Taking the values observed at the end of the 3^rd quarter of 2022 as a basis, and reporting now to the end of the 4^th quarter of 2022, the following evolution was recorded:

• The number of 5G¹ base stations installed increased by 35%,
• The number of municipalities with 5G stations grew by 10%,
• The number of civil parishes with 5G stations grew by 28%, of which
• parishes in low-density areas with 5G stations (41% increase),
• parishes in the Autonomous Regions with 5G stations (55% increase).

NOS remains the operator that, to date, has installed more base stations, followed by Vodafone and MEO. As regards the evolution of the number of stations installed compared to the previous quarter, NOS grew by 51% and, as regards Vodafone and MEO, by 12% and 43% respectively.

By the end of the 4^th quarter, according to information reported to ANACOM, the number of base stations installed in the national territory with 5G technology reached 5842 stations, spread across 302 municipalities (98% of municipalities in the country) and 1526 civil parishes (49% of civil parishes in the country).

Figure 1: Municipalities with 5G stations

Of the 308 municipalities that make up the national territory, six municipalities are not yet served  with any 5G station. This concerns the following municipalities:

Mainland Portugal

• Alandroal
• Pedrogao Grande
• Portel
• Sousel
• Vila Viçosa

Azores

• Corvo

NOS is the operator that, with reference to the end of the 4^th quarter, has installed the largest number of 5G base stations, totalling 2985 stations (51%), followed by Vodafone with 1803 stations (31%) and MEO with 1054 stations (18%).

Figure 2: Geographical distribution of 5G stations

As far as the density of 5G base stations in Portugal is concerned, it was found that, by the end of the 4^th quarter of 2022, it averages approximately one station per 15 km², although this varies considerably throughout the territory, with the concentration of the number of stations reaching higher values than the national average along the western coastline, mainly between Viana do Castelo and Setubal, and the southern coastline (Algarve).

It should be noted, however, that 113 parishes in the country already have more than one base station per km².

It can also be observed that the areas where the density of stations is higher also correspond to those where population density is higher or where the number of inhabitants is seasonal.

In terms of territorial spread of 5G base stations, according to municipalities, MEO is the operator with 5G base stations in the largest number of municipalities - 285, followed by NOS in 249 municipalities and Vodafone in 194 municipalities.

Figure 3: Number of municipalities where each operator is present

Of the 302 municipalities with stations associated with 5G technology, 174 municipalities have base stations installed by three operators (MEO, NOS and Vodafone), 78 municipalities have base stations installed by two operators and 50 municipalities only have base stations installed by a single operator.

These are the municipalities which only have base stations installed by a single operator:

Table 1 - Municipalities with base stations installed by a single operator

Municipality	Operator	Municipality	Operator
Aguiar da Beira	MEO	Góis	MEO
Alcoutim	MEO	Mação	MEO
Alfândega da Fé	MEO	Mesão Frio	Vodafone
Alijó	MEO	Monchique	MEO
Aljustrel	MEO	Monforte	NOS
Almodôvar	MEO	Moura	MEO
Alvaiázere	MEO	Mourão	MEO
Alvito	MEO	Ourém	NOS
Ansião	MEO	Ourique	MEO
Arganil	MEO	Pampilhosa da Serra	MEO
Arraiolos	MEO	Penacova	MEO
Barrancos	MEO	Penedono	MEO
Borba	MEO	Redondo	MEO
Calheta (São Jorge)	MEO	Reguengos de Monsaraz	MEO
Campo Maior	MEO	Santiago do Cacém	MEO
Carrazeda de Ansiães	MEO	São João da Pesqueira	MEO
Carregal do Sal	MEO	Sardoal	MEO
Castanheira de Pêra	MEO	Serpa	MEO
Castro Verde	MEO	Tábua	MEO
Cuba	MEO	Tomar	NOS
Estremoz	MEO	Viana do Alentejo	MEO
Ferreira do Alentejo	MEO	Vidigueira	MEO
Ferreira do Zêzere	MEO	Vila Flor	MEO
Figueiró dos Vinhos	MEO	Vila Nova da Barquinha	MEO
Fronteira	MEO	Vila Nova de Poiares	MEO

The following figure shows the map of the territorial spread of base stations by operators:

Figure 4: Municipalities with 5G stations - territorial spread of base stations per operator

With regard to the breakdown of the 5842 base stations installed on national territory by civil parishes, it can be observed that they are present in 1526 parishes, which represents 49% of the country’s civil parishes.

Figure 5: Civil parishes with 5G stations

The total area of civil parishes in which there are no 5G stations represents 46.6% of the national territory and, according to the 2021 Census, corresponds to about 15% of the national population².

It is noted that taking as reference the hierarchical system of division of the territory into NUTS III regions, it is found that, for the administrative units of Douro, Beiras e Serra da Estrela, Beira Baixa, Médio Tejo, Alto Alentejo, Alentejo Central, Alentejo Litoral and Baixo Alentejo, the number of 5G base stations is significantly lower than in the remaining regions of the country.

From the analysis carried out, it appears that a significant majority of 5G stations (67% of the total, corresponding to 3920 stations) are located in Predominantly Urban Areas. Around 14% (811 stations) are installed in Medium-urban Areas and 19% (1111 stations) in Predominantly Rural Areas.

Figure 6 - Number of 5G stations per type of area, urban or rural

Based on the mapping of Low Density Territories, it is observed that the vast majority of 5G stations (4039 stations) are installed in civil parishes other than Low Density, and around 68% of these parishes already have at least one 5G station. In turn, only 24% of the total number of stations (1373 stations) are installed in Low Density civil parishes.

Of the total number of Low Density civil parishes (1813 parishes), only 36% (658 parishes) have 5G stations, while 1155 parishes (64% of the total) still do not have 5G stations.

In the case of civil parishes of the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira, 67% of parishes have 5G stations (141 civil parishes), while 69 civil parishes (61 in the Autonomous Region of the Azores and 8 in the Autonomous Region of Madeira) have no 5G station installed.

Figure 7: Breakdown of 5G stations by type of civil parish

If the number of installed stations is associated with the number of parishes with installed base stations, the following conclusions can be drawn:

Table 2 - Average number of stations per civil parish with station

Despite this evolution, if we consider the total number of existing stations (2G, 3G, 4G and 5G), we observe that NOS is the operator with the fewest stations, totalling 14590 stations (32% of the total), Vodafone ranking first with 16652 stations (36%) and MEO ranking second with 14801 stations (32%).

Figure 8: Number of 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G stations per operator

Many of the 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G stations of each operator are located in the same place, so it is important to analyse the total number of sites where each operator has stations. Thus, it is observed that Vodafone has stations in 5802 sites, MEO in 4967 sites and NOS in 4237 sites.

Figure 9: Number of sites with stations per operator

Finally, it should also be stressed that, by the end of December, there were 1.5 million 5G mobile Internet accesses in Portugal, which represents 15.4% of total mobile Internet accesses. The monthly traffic generated reached 6133 TB, which means that 7.7% of total mobile traffic is already supported on 5G networks³.