ANACOM - Portuguese Communications Authority

09/16/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 09/16/2024 09:07

67% of fixed Internet accesses are fibre based

In the 2nd quarter of 2024 (2Q2024), the penetration rate of fixed broadband residential customers was 92.0 per 100 households, representing a 0.1 percentage point (p.p.) decrease compared to the same period last year. This decline was driven by an increase in the National Statistics Institute's annual estimate of private households.

Compared to the same quarter last year, the number of fixed broadband accesses increased by 122 thousand (+2.7%) to 4.7 million. This was the lowest year-on-year percentage increase since this information has been collected (2001).

Fibre optic (FTTH/B) was responsible for the increase in the number of accesses and was also the main form of fixed broadband Internet access, reaching 67.4% of total accesses, 2.4 p.p. more than in 2Q2023. In the last 12 months, the number of fibre optic accesses increased by 189 thousand accesses (+6.4%).

The number of accesses supported by cable modem networks decreased by 1.9% and accounted for 24.9% of the total (-1.2 p.p. compared to 12 months ago). The number of fixed accesses supported by mobile networks decreased by 3.0% and accounted for 5.1% of the total (-0.3 p.p. compared to 12 months ago). The number of ADSL accesses continued its downward trend, falling by 27.6% due to substitution by next generation accesses, and represented 2.3% of total Internet accesses at a fixed location at the end of 2Q2024 (-1.0 p.p. compared with 12 months ago).

In terms of access speed, in the 2nd quarter of 2024, 91.6% of fixed broadband accesses offered ultrafast broadband (i.e. download speed greater than or equal to 100 Mbps).

In July 2023, Portugal was the 4th EU country with the highest proportion of accesses with download speeds of 100 Mbps or more, according to the latest information available from the European Commission.

The increase in the share of ultrafast broadband accesses has been accompanied by the development of fibre optic (FTTH/B) networks and the introduction of DOCSIS 3.x in cable TV networks. These two network types accounted for 72% and 27% of 100 Mbps and above accesses respectively.

In 2Q2024, total fixed broadband internet traffic increased by 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. The average monthly traffic per access was around 309 GB, 12.7% more than in 2Q2023. Both the total traffic and the average monthly traffic per access reached new historical highs.

In the markets for fixed broadband Internet access services, there are four companies with significant shares of subscribers: MEO (41.2%), Grupo NOS (33.6%), Vodafone (21.9%) and NOWO (2.7%). Compared to the same quarter last year, the shares of MEO and Vodafone increased by 0.2 p.p. and 0.1 p.p. respectively, while the shares of Grupo NOS and NOWO decreased by 0.2 p.p.. MEO was the operator with the most net additions.

Looking at residential accesses only, MEO had the highest share of subscribers (39.4%), followed by Grupo NOS (35.8%), Vodafone (21.2%) and NOWO (3.1%). Compared with the same quarter last year, the shares of Vodafone and MEO increased by 0.2 p.p. and 0.1 p.p. respectively, while the shares of Grupo NOS and NOWO decreased by 0.2 p.p..

In terms of fixed broadband traffic shares, MEO reached 42.9% in 2Q2024, followed by Grupo NOS with 29.5% and Vodafone with 23.5%. NOWO's share was 1.8%. Compared to 2Q2023, the traffic shares of MEO and NOWO increased (+0.6 p.p. and +0.3 p.p. respectively), while the shares of Grupo NOS and Vodafone decreased by 0.7 p.p. and 0.3 p.p. respectively.

Consult the statistical report: