There were around 3.243 million fixed telephone service customers using direct access in the second quarter of 2008, an increase of 0.6% on the previous quarter.
Regarding indirect access using pre-selection, the number of customers fell by 10.3%, to 221.8 thousand. It should be pointed out that this result extends the falling trend seen for this type of access since the second quarter of 2006. Compared to the same period of the previous year, the number of pre-selection customers fell by 42%. This trend is explained by the new providers focusing on other business models with prospects of higher return and by new tariffs of the incumbent operator.
In second quarter there were 27 thousand active customers using call-by-call selection. This represents a fall on the previous quarter of 6.3%, resulting from a substantial reduction of this type of customer for alternative operators, and fall of 42% over the same quarter of the previous year. This drop in numbers can be put down to the growth in the direct access offers of alternative operators. The new optional price plans launched by the incumbent operator and a shift in the focus of one of alternative operator's strategy could also have had an impact on the fall.
With respect to the customers of nomadic VoIP, there were around 115 thousand active customers, representing a rise of 12.9% over the previous quarter.
Grupo PT's share of direct access customers fell by 0.8% compared to the previous quarter and by 5% compared to a year earlier, to stand at 66.6% by the end of the quarter. This fall is a result, not only of the new offers of the alternative providers, but also of accesses with the SLRO activated.
In the indirect access modes, the alternative providers continue to hold a market share of above 93%.
The total number of main telephone accesses installed at customer request stood at around 4 million at the end of the second quarter, corresponding to a penetration rate of approximately 38.2 accesses per 100 inhabitants. Compared to the previous quarter, there was a slight decrease of 0.8% in the number of accesses. The decline in analogue accesses and reduction in basic, primary and fractioned ISDN accesses was not fully offset by the growth of accesses using other technologies, including GSM, VoIP and cable. Year-on-year the number of accesses installed at customer request saw a fall of 1.3%. It should be mentioned that accesses based on GSM technology increased 1.9% over the previous quarter and 36.5% year-on-year. The exponential growth seen in the number of accesses based on VoIP technology should also be pointed out.
In this quarter the number of installed public payphones stood at approximately 40.3 thousand, a fall of about 1.6% compared to the previous quarter and a fall of 5.6% year-on-year.
In terms of share of accesses, the companies of the Portugal Telecom Group operating in these markets held about 69.4% of all accesses installed at customer request, 0.8% less than at the end of the previous quarter and 4.5% less than a year earlier. In June, the alternative operators had 30.6% of accesses.
During the period being reported, total traffic originating on the fixed network totalled around 2.059 billion minutes resulting from 680 million calls.
Compared to the previous quarter, the volume of minutes and the volume of calls fell by 1.7 and 2.3% respectively. Year-on-year there was also a fall.
As far as traffic in minutes is concerned, the decline in total traffic can be mostly explained by the sharp fall in dial-up Internet access traffic (down 19.9%) resulting from the strong expansion of Internet access using broadband technologies, and by the reduction in voice traffic.
Meanwhile, traffic associated with the nomadic VoIP service totalled around 65.4 million minutes, representing an increase of 9.8% compared to the previous quarter, and representing 3.2% of total traffic in terms of minutes and 2% in terms of calls.
In the second quarter of 2008, 12.9% of the total voice minutes were originated through indirect access, 0.6 percentage points less than the figure recorded for the previous quarter and 4.2 percentage points less than the figure recorded for the same quarter of the previous year.
In the quarter being reported, the companies of Grupo PT saw their share of voice traffic continue its downward trend, falling over the previous quarter both in terms of minutes (66.3% in the quarter, 1.3% more than in the previous quarter) and in terms of the number of calls (66.9% in the quarter, 0.9% more than in the previous quarter).
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