Fixed broadband accesses grow 9% in Portugal with ADSL dominating the market

Sapo opens laboratory at the University of Aveiro

The number of customers of the fixed Internet access service in Portugal grew by 1.9 percent in the second quarter of this year, and 9 percent in relation to the same period in 2006, now standing at 1.676 million customers.

Anacom indicates that in June, the penetration rate of fixed broadband Internet access stood at 14.7 percent, having increased 0.4 percent in the second quarter and approximately 2.1 percent compared to the same quarter. last year.

The regulator’s data shows that the number of users of accesses dial-up it continues to fall, now standing at 121 thousand, that is, 15 thousand less than in the first quarter of 2007. Taking into account the figures from last year, accesses of this nature decreased by close to 42 percent. This decrease is explained by the regulator as a reflection of the migration to broadband accesses.

In this sense, and as expected, the majority (93 percent) of Internet accesses in Portugal are made through broadband connections. In the second quarter, 47 thousand customers joined broadband – 3.1 percent more than in the first three months of the year – which puts the total number of users at 1.56 million.

As has been the habit since 2004, ADSL is the technology of choice for broadband customers. In the second quarter, the number of customers of this type of access increased by 2.6 percent – and 17.8 percent compared to 2006 -, now capturing 62 percent of the total broadband customers, that is, 971 thousand users.

In turn, cable connections are used by 37 percent of broadband customers, a percentage that corresponds to 576 thousand users. In the second quarter, the number of cable Internet customers increased by 3.7 percent while compared to the same period in 2006, it grew by 14.7 percent.

With regard to the share of broadband customers, Anacom says that the PT Group continues to see its share decrease, but marginally, this time to 70.6 percent, that is, 0.3% less percent than in the previous quarter and 3.1 percent below the same period last year.

The analysis published by the regulator also shows that, between April and June, 53 percent of new broadband customers joined the services of alternative providers. The increase in the participation of these operators was supported by «unbundled local loops, reflecting the improvement in the conditions of the offer of the Local Loop (LLU)», says the national communications authority in a statement.

At the same time, Anacom carried out an international price comparison for broadband accesses, based on the fixed residential services of 13 European Union countries, and noted that Portugal is around 35 percent below the average of the regions considered, setting ranked fourth among the countries with the lowest rates in 4 Mbps offers.

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