According to a recent survey by ANACOM into broadband use, 26% of Portuguese household had broadband Internet access, around 35.3% had Internet and 51% had a computer, as of January 2006.
The survey highlights strong growth in broadband penetration among households - more than 9% since the end of 2004. This result is in part explained by the trend of migration from narrowband to broadband.
The main broadband access technology being used is ADSL (47.2%), followed by cable modem (46.6%). Around 3% of broadband customers use 3G mobile access (1.5% with a 3G wireless access card and the rest with a 3G Mobile); meanwhile Powerline Communications (PLC) is used by 1.3% of households.
According to ANACOM's survey the biggest barrier to Internet connection is 'lack of interest or need' (38.3%), while the second most given reason was 'lack of PC' (34%). Only 8.6% cited the cost of the service as a barrier.
It should be noted, however, that when it comes to the barriers to migration from narrowband to broadband (broadband now accounts for over 74% of Internet access, rising from 56%), the reasons given are significantly different.
In fact when asked about the reason for not migrating to broadband, the proportion of users who respond 'Don't need / not interested' falls from 55% to 27% while the proportion citing price rises from 16% to 23%. The proportion of users giving lack of geographical coverage as a reason also rises (4.3% to 11.7%).
It can be seen that broadband users are in the most part young, urban and university educated, are students or professionals, and belong to A/B socio-economic groups. Therefore there could be socio-economic factors in play that may be influencing patterns of broadband possession.
Looking at customer opinion, it can be seen that 8.8% of respondents answered that broadband Internet access services had not met their expectations; whereas 88% replied that they were either "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the speed of access.
When it comes to reliability 86% of broadband customers said they were either satisfied or very satisfied.
86% of customers also said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with billing transparency.
Of all customers, the customers of Netcabo were found to be the least satisfied when it came to connection speed, reliability and billing transparency.
The companies belonging to PT group provide broadband Internet access services to around 70% of those surveyed, while Cabovisão came in with the second largest share of customers with 15%, followed by Clix with 6.9% and Oni with 3.2%.
The fieldwork for this survey was carried out by Tns Euroteste between 19 December 2005 and 23 January 2006 and involved 4,225 interviews, of which 1,099 were with broadband users.
The target population defined for this survey was set as being individuals of both sexes, aged 18 or over and resident in Portugal. The size of the sample was set to ensure that the margin of error would not exceed 4%.
Consult:
- Survey of Broadband Use https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=923519
