Over half of Portuguese broadband now fibre

Over half of Portuguese fixed broadband connections were via fibre by the end of 2019, according to data released by telecom regulator ANACOM.

According to the watchdog’s statistics, 50.6% of fixed broadband connections were fibre at the end of last year, compared with 45.2% a year earlier. The number of connected lines increased by 297,000 over the course of the year, taking the total to two million.

There were 3.97 million fixed broadband connections in the country at the end of the year. As well as growth in fibre, cable broadband penetration increased by 15,000 or 1.3%, while ADSL’s decline accelerated, dropping by 20.4% or 124,000 connections.

Overall, cable accounted for 30.1% of the overall market, compared with 12.2% for ADSL and 7% for LTE fixed wireless.

Altice Portugal/Meo was the leading provider with a 40.3% market share, followed by NOS with 35.7%, Vodafone with 20% and Nowo/Oneitelelcom with 3.7%. Vodafone’s share grew by 0.8% over the year, while NOS’s declined by 0.9%.

Meo is the leading fibre and ADSL provider, with a 55.9% share of the fibre market and a 89.5% share of ADSL. NOS is the main cable provider with a 87.8% share, and also dominates the LTE fixed wireless segment with a 64.1% share,

Meo has the highest number of residential broadband customers,w ith a 38.7% share, closely followed by NOS with 38%. Vodafone has a 19% share. While Vodafone and Meo grew their bases by 0.95% and 0.6% respectively, NOS’s base declined by 1.4%.

Fixed broadband internet traffic in Portugal grew by 29.1% last year to reach 5.96 million TB, driven by the multiplicity of streaming services available in the country such as Netflix, NPlay, FOX Play, Amazon Prime Video and HBO Portugal.