Total traffic originating in the fixed network during the first three months of the year was 2,386 million minutes, 5.1% less than in the previous quarter, resulting from 773 million calls - a 3.5% fall. In the year to March, falls are stronger, of 11.1% and 5.3%, respectively.
Traffic reduction is mainly due to the decrease in the dial-up Internet access traffic, motivated by the great expansion of broadband.
Regarding voice traffic, 2,053 million minutes were originated in the fixed network, in about 755 million calls, a 3.2% and 3.4% fall vis-à-vis the previous quarter, respectively. In the year to the end of March, there is a 2.6% fall in the volume of voice minutes and of 4.5% in the number of calls. The drops were brought about by the reduction in national traffic to fixed numbers (year-to-date drops of 2.7% in minutes and 4.5% in calls) and to mobile numbers (year-to-date drops of 3.2% in minutes and 5.2% in calls).
21% of the total voice traffic minutes were made with indirect access, 0.6% more that in the previous quarter and 1.3% above the same quarter of the previous year.
Regarding voice calls, 21.7% were made with indirect access, 0.9 per cent more than in the previous quarter. Average call length reached 3.08 minutes, a figure below that of the previous quarter, due to the sharp and progressive fall in the Internet access traffic.
Average length of voice calls remained around 2.72 minutes.
In terms of shares, the trend of reduction in Grupo PT’s share remains, both in minutes - a 72.2% share, 0.4% less than in the previous quarter; and in calls - a 71.9% share, 1.2 per cent below that of the previous quarter.
In the same period, new operators increased their shares by 3.4%, regarding voice traffic, and 3.6 per cent in number of calls.
Regarding main telephone accesses installed at customer request, there was a 0.9 per cent reduction to 4.09 million, corresponding to a penetration of 39 accesses per 100 inhabitants - a 1.3% reduction in the year to March.
In terms of access shares, Grupo PT’s companies operating in these markets had 87.5% of the accesses installed at customer request, 1.5 per cent less than in the previous quarter and 5% less than in the same month of the previous year.
The number of fixed telephone service customers in the direct access mode was around 3.093 million, a 1.3% fall regarding the previous quarter.
New operators had a 16.8% increase in the number of direct access customers, to which contributed the GSM-based offers and the package offers with fixed telephone and cable television and/or Internet.
Grupo PT had an 86.9% share of direct access customers, a fall of 2 per cent on the previous quarter and of 6.2% in the year to March. In the indirect access, new operators have a 99% share.
Indirect access using pre-selection increased 6.2% in number of clients, to 499 thousand. In the year to March, the increase is of 17.9%. Call-by-call selection had 92,556 active clients by the end of March, 8.9% less than in the previous quarter. In year-to-date terms, the reduction is more important - 11.8%.
In the period now being analysed, there were about 44,611 public payphones, 1.7% less than in the previous quarter and 4.8% less than in March of the previous year.
At the end of March there were 22 entities entitled to provide fixed telephone service, 12 of which are active.
Consult:
- Postal services https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=277884
