According to Anacom, the number of subscribers to telecommunications packages grew by 186 thousand users at the end of 2019, reaching about 4.1 million, which translates into a 4.8% increase. According to the telecommunications market regulator, the evolution is mainly due to the increase in the number of users with 4P and 5P packages, but Anacom also notes that the growth in the number of package subscribers has been decelerating since 2015.
In total, revenues from bundled services reached 1.66 billion euros in 2019, 4.9% more than in the previous year. Only 4Pe 5P offers (which combine 4 or 5 services in a single package) represented 62.9% of total revenues, with NOS being the operator with the largest market share.
Each subscriber to bundled services paid, on average, 34.81 euros in 2019 (excluding VAT), a value that rose 0.9% compared to 2018. In the specific case of 4P and 5P packages the average value decreased 0.4% for 45.52 euros. which makes this option even more attractive.
4P and 5P are ahead in customer preferences
The report shows that these quadruple / quintuple play bundles of electronic communications service packages were the most used in 2019, and that there are already 2.02 million subscribers (49.7% of total users), which translates into a percentage growth compared to the previous year of 12.5%, with 225 thousand new subscribers.
It should be noted that, in second place among the most used offers, there are triple play offers (3P), with 1.62 million subscribers (39.8% of the total), which still had a very slight growth, at rates significantly lower than in previous years. According to Anacom's statement "this evolution of 3P offers was partly associated with the migration to packages with a greater number of services (4 / 5P). Double play (2P) offers continued to decrease in 2019 (-8.6%) , totaling 424 thousand subscribers ".
MEO leads the pack and NOS has more revenue
The data shared today by Anacom shows that, at the end of 2019, MEO continues to be the operator with the largest share of subscribers to bundled services, accumulating 40.4% of all subscribers to these services. With these data, the operator of the Altice group maintains the leadership it already had in 2018.
In second place are aNOS with 37.1%, Vodafone with 18.6%, and the NOWO / Onitelecom Group with 3.8%. Anacom stresses that, compared to the previous year, Vodafone was the only one of these operators that increased its share of subscribers, by 0.8 percentage points.
Anacom data show, however, that NOS has the largest market share in 4P and 5P customers, with 43.5% of all subscribers, while MEO has 42.3%. Here, Vodafone also has a lower market share than in the general indicator, not exceeding 11%.
In terms of service revenues, NOS is ahead, with 42.2% of all revenues generated in these packages, followed by MEO with 40.7%, Vodafone with 14.2% and the NOWO / Onitelecom Group with 2.8%.
"Compared to the previous year, Vodafone and Grupo NOS increased their revenue shares, by 1.3 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively, in contrast to the reduction seen in MEO, of 1.1 percentage points, and in the Group NOWO / Onitelecom, 0.6 percentage points ", says Anacom.
Editor's Note: The news has been updated with more information