By the end of the 4th quarter of 2011 (4Q2011) the number of main telephone accesses reached 4.5 million, which is a 0.3 per cent increase over the previous quarter and 1.1 per cent over the same period in 2010. Special mention should be made of the yearly increase of VoIP/VoB accesses (over 27 per cent), including fibre optic accesses (FTTH/FTTB), which increased 94 per cent. During that period accesses based on the GSM/UMTS technology increased 3.7 per cent. It should be highlighted that the accesses using networks that are alternative to the traditional network accounted for 34.5 per cent of the main telephone accesses in 4Q2011, 1.8 per cent more than in the previous quarter and 5.2 per cent more than in 4Q2010.
Regarding public payphones, their number continues to decrease, standing at 27 thousand during this quarter, 9.5 per cent fewer than in 3Q2011, and 15.5 per cent fewer than a year before.
Maintaining its expansion trend, the penetration rate of main telephone accesses reached 42.5 accesses per 100 inhabitants.
The Grupo Portugal Telecom (PT Group) companies that operate on these markets continue to be responsible for most accesses, with a 58.7 per cent share, albeit decreasing - 0.5 per cent less than in 3Q2011, and 1.7 per cent less than in 4Q2010.
By the end of the 4th Quarter of 2011 the number of fixed telephone service customers in the direct access mode was 3.6 million, which is a 0.8 per cent increase over the previous quarter, and 2.5 per cent up on the figure for the 4th quarter of 2010. This was due to a significant contribution from the package offers that integrate the fixed telephone service, paid television and/or Internet, and from the offers from alternative providers based on cable television networks.
It should be highlighted that the direct access residential customers' penetration rate reached 56.2 per 100 households in 4Q2011, considering classic family households. This is a 0.5 per cent increase over the previous period. Indirect access, however, maintained the downward trend followed since the 2nd quarter of 2006.
Regarding nomadic VoIP customers, by the end of 4Q2011 there were about 84 thousand active customers, 5.7 per cent down on the previous quarter.
During the quarter under analysis PT Group's share of direct access customers fell 0.4 per cent relative to 3Q2011, and 1.8 per cent relative to the 4Q2010; it now stands at 52.7 per cent. This decline in the share of direct access customers is mainly due to new offers by alternative providers based on different access technologies from those of the traditional fixed telephone service, particularly bundled packages.
Total voice traffic originated on the fixed network during 4Q2011 was about 2.02 million minutes and 560 million calls, which represent increases of 6.7 and 1.2 per cent, respectively. With respect to the previous year there was a 0.9 per cent rise in the amount of minutes, and a 6 per cent fall in the number of calls.
On average, 32 fixed-to-fixed calls, 7 fixed-to-mobile calls, and 2 international calls were made per main access in 4Q2011.
During the period under analysis, PT Group's share of the fixed telephone service voice traffic reached 56.7 per cent, 0.6 per cent less than in the previous quarter.
Consult the statistical report:
- Fixed Telephone Service - 4th quarter 2011 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1119408
