Following the allocation of rights of use of frequencies under the Regulation of the Multiband Auction and within the scope of the renewal of rights of use of frequencies allocated in the 2100 MHz band, the operators MEO – Serviços de Comunicações e Multimédia (MEO), NOS Comunicações (NOS ) and Vodafone Portugal – Comunicações Pessoais (Vodafone) were made subject to coverage obligations in 1068 parishes (356 parishes per operator), identified as tending to lack mobile broadband coverage (abbreviated as BLM480 and BLM588 coverage obligations).
These obligations entail provision, by the operator with obligations in the parish, of a mobile broadband service that covers, at a minimum, the parish capital in the case of BLM480 parishes or 75% of the population in case of BLM588 parishes. In BLM480 parishes, according to the latest review and setting of reference speeds, this mobile broadband service must permit download data speeds1 equal to or greater than 43.2 Mbps (MEO), 21 Mbps (NOS) and 43.2 Mbps (Vodafone). In BLM588 parishes, this mobile broadband service must permit download data speeds1 equal to or greater than 30 Mbps for all operators.
During 2022, verifications of compliance with these obligations were carried out in 135 parishes in mainland Portugal (figure 1). Priority was given to parishes with complaints by users or local authorities.
The results obtained, detailed in the following figures (figure 2, figure 3, figure 4 and figure 5), lead to the following conclusions:
- in 134 parishes, operators are in compliance with MBB obligations;
- in one parish, steps are still being taken to verify compliance with BLM obligations;
- in the BLM588 parishes, mobile broadband services are available, with download data speeds1
- equal to or greater than 30 Mbps for 93.6% of the population (18.6 percentage points above the required minimum threshold);
- download data speeds1 registered in BLM480 parishes reported average values of 84 Mbps (2.5 times above the minimum threshold imposed by the obligations).
Figure 1 – Parishes subject to verification of MBB coverage obligations in 2022
Figure 2 - Results of verifications carried out in 2022 in BLM588 parishes
Figure 3 - Results of verifications carried out in 2022 in BLM480 parishes (MEO)
Figure 4 - Results of verifications carried out in 2022 in BLM480 parishes (NOS)
Figure 5 – Results of verifications carried out in 2022 in BLM480 parishes (Vodafone)
1 Corresponds to the maximum theoretical data rate in an outdoor environment, including signalling and encoding traffic, that a mobile communications system makes available at a given location, that is, in a hypothetical situation of providing services to an individual user.
