The total traffic of the 822 million fixed telephone service calls made during the second quarter of this year, between April and June, reached 2.616 billion minutes, a figure 2.2% less than that of the previous quarter. The decline is mainly due to the sharp drop in dial-up internet access that has accompanied the expansion of access via broadband technologies, and was steeper in year-on-year terms, 16.2%.
Voice traffic accounts for 81% of total traffic generated during this period, versus 19% of internet traffic, which fell by 13.7% in minutes.
Voice traffic in minutes recorded a 0.9% rise compared to the previous quarter and a 1.1% rise in calls, mainly due to the increase in traffic to mobile numbers and outgoing international traffic. Regarding traffic to fixed numbers, a decline was recorded.
In year-on-year terms there was a drop in both minutes, 7.4%, and in the number of calls, 6.1%.
In the second quarter of the year, 20.3% of total traffic in minutes was originated via indirect access, 0.5 points more than in the previous quarter and 2.7 points more than in the year-on-year period. Of total calls made between April and June, 20.7% were made via indirect access.
During the same period, the PT group continued to lose market share in voice traffic, both in minutes, 74.9%, 1 percentage point less than in the previous quarter, and in calls, 74.8%, 1.1 percentage points less than in the previous quarter.
At the end of June, the number of fixed telephone service customers in the direct access mode was around 3,140,000, or 0.1% less than at the end of March. The new operators, namely those that offer fixed telephone service together with the service of cable television distribution with or without internet access, saw the number of their direct access customers increase by 8.4% in the second quarter of this year.
In indirect access via pre-selection, the situation continues to evolve favourably, with recorded growth of 6.7% in the number of customers, to 451,556. Countering this, call-to-call selection recorded 6.7% fewer customers, 97,926, than in the previous quarter.
The PT group's share of direct access customers was 92.9% at the end of June, a drop of 0.6 percentage points.
The complement of main telephones installed at customer request at the end of the second quarter of 2005 stood at 4,096,000, corresponding to penetration of 40 accesses per 100 inhabitants. Compared to the previous quarter, there was a decline of 0.7% due to the drop in the number of installed analogue accesses.
During the quarter under review the number of installed public payphones was 47,000, 0.4% less than in the previous quarter.
The Portugal Telecom group continues to account for most of the accesses installed at customer request, 92.5% of the total, 0.4 points less than in the first quarter of 2005.
In analogue accesses, PT held a 93.3% share, while in digital accesses this figure falls to 89.5%. The PT group's share of analogue accesses has fallen at a faster pace due to the decline in fixed telephone service use and the growth of package offers by the cable television and internet operators.
At the end of the second quarter there were 22 entities authorised to provide fixed telephone service, of which 14 were operational.
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