FTTH drives Portuguese broadband market
FTTH now accounts for almost two-thirds of fixed broadband accesses in Portugal.
According to data published by the regulator ANACOM, the number of FTTH accesses increased by 246,000, or 9.3%, in the year to March 31. As of the end of Q1, 64.4% of accesses were FTTH, up 3.4pp on a year earlier. The penetration rate of residential fixed broadband customers was 91.7 per 100 households, 3.2 pp more than in the same period in 2022. Compared to the same quarter of last year, the number of fixed broadband accesses increased by 152,000 (+3.5%), reaching 4.5 million.
Fixed broadband internet accesses supported on cable TV networks decreased by 0.8%, and represented 26.3% of the total (-1.1pp). Meanwhile, fixed accesses supported on mobile networks decreased by 5.9% and accounted for 5.5% of the total (-0.5 pp). ADSL accesses maintained the downward trend, having fallen by 30.6%, replaced by new generation accesses. They accounted for 3.6% of total accesses (-1.8 pp).
ANACOM notes that at the end of 2022 89% of fixed broadband accesses were ultra-fast, with download speeds greater than or equal to 100 Mbps. This was 2.8 pp more than a year earlier.
As of Q1 this year, the fixed broadband internet access service market was served by four companies: Meo (41%), Grupo Nos (34%), Vodafone (21.7%) and Nowo (2.9%). Compared to the same quarter in 2022, Meo and Vodafone’s shares increased by 0.3pp each, while the shares of Grupo Nos and Nowo decreased by 0.3pp each one. Meo was the provider that captured the most customers in net terms.
