In the first three months of this year 3.1 million Portuguese took advantage of services supported in the third mobile generation. This range includes video telephony, mobile broadband, television on mobile phones, among others. The number of mobile users that took advantage of these technologies increased by 22.6 percent over the previous quarter, according to figures released today by Anacom.
The numbers of the communications regulator also show that at the end of March there were a total of 8.4 million users in the country qualified to use mobile broadband, a figure that represents about half the number of active base stations (active user equipment and with actual use).
Active base stations reached 15.8 million at the end of the first quarter, 82.7 percent with actual use. Prepaid plans dominate this universe, associated with 71.6 percent of devices with 3G connectivity, accounted for by Anacom.
The use of mobile services in Portugal remains higher than the population with the penetration of the service reaching 148.9 per 100 inhabitants, a balance that reflects the fact that there are users with more than one mobile phone and data cards allocated exclusively to data.
In this universe, voice continues to have a dominant space and received 2 billion calls in the period, a value that represents a decrease compared to the previous quarter and to the same period around 5 percent. In the same period, the number of calls received on the mobile network reached 1.9 billion, 8 percent less than in the previous quarter and 0.8 percent less compared to the same period last year. It should be noted, however, that the first quarter of the year is usually weaker than the previous one, taking into account that the period between October and December includes Christmas.
With regard to text messages, more than 6.3 billion were sent in the period, 4 percent more than in the same period last year. MMS exchanges also increased, 14.5 percent to 25.3 thousand.
In third generation services, Mobile TV was used at the end of March by 2 percent of mobile stations with actual use. In the period this service was used 1.2 million times, which corresponds to 6 sessions per user. Video calling, on the other hand, was used 1.3 million times, 2.1 percent less than in the same period last year.
