At the end of 3rd quarter 2012 (3Q2012), there were 16.6 million mobile stations eligible to use the service, 0.2 percent more than in the previous quarter and 0.02 percent less than in the same quarter of 2011 (3Q2011). This quarter marks the first negative year-on-year change since data on this indicator was compiled.
Approximately 13.4 million active mobile stations saw actual use, which is 80.8 percent of the total. Excluding cards/modems used for mobile broadband Internet access, the number of active mobile stations/user devices with actual use during 3Q2012 was reported at 12.4 million, 1.5 percent less than in 2Q2012.
At the end of September, mobile service penetration reached 156.3 per 100 inhabitants. However, the rate of penetration reported for mobile stations with actual use was 126.3 per 100 inhabitants. Meanwhile, according to Marktest's Barómetro Telecomunicações (Telecommunications Barometer), 91.7 percent of all residents in Portugal were mobile subscribers.
There were about 4 million actual users of the mobile broadband service, representing an increase of 2.2 percent over the previous quarter and an increase of 1.8 percent compared to 3Q2011. Users of such services constitute 30.1 percent of total mobile stations with actual use, a level which has remained relatively constant.
Of the total number of users of broadband services that reported traffic, about 1 million are users of cards/modems. Since 1st quarter 2010, the number of mobile stations associated with this particular service has declined by 19.4 percent.
In this period, about 2.2 billion calls were made, 0.8 percent more than in the previous quarter. On average, 59 calls were made each month per active mobile station with actual use, excluding cards for mobile broadband Internet access. Out of the total calls made, approximately 42 were made to destinations on the network of the originating provider and 10 to networks of other providers of the same service.
The volume of conversation minutes originating on mobile networks totalled 5.3 billion, representing a decline of 0.1 percent compared to 2Q12 and a decline of 2.5 percent compared to the same quarter of 2011, falling below the lower limit of the forecast range resulting from the historical trend and seasonal adjustment. On-net traffic was the main driver of the decline occurring in comparison to 2Q2012. Traffic in minutes has been falling since the beginning of the year.
Each mobile station with actual use (excluding cards/modems) reported, on average, 142 conversation minutes per month, 2 minutes more than in the previous quarter. Of these, 111 were on-net minutes, 18 were off-net minutes, 5 minutes were associated with calls to the fixed network, 3 minutes with calls to short/non-geographic numbers and 5 minutes with calls to international networks. The average duration of calls originated on the mobile network over this period was 145 seconds per call.
Users of the text messaging service, representing 59.2 percent of total mobile stations with actual use, sent about 7.1 billion text messages, which corresponds to an increase of 0.7 percent compared to 2Q2012. Of these, 23.4 million were value-added messages, i.e. 0.3 percent of total messages sent. The average monthly number of messages sent per user was 322, corresponding to about 11 messages a day.
Meanwhile, the number of MMS and video-call users, and associated traffic, remained relatively low, in line with the recent trend.
The trend in MMS is growing, with service users sending approximately 41.2 million MMS, 4.8 percent more than in the previous period. The trend in video-calls continues to decline, with about 472 thousand video-calls made, 7.7 percent less than in 2Q2012.
The number of mobile TV users was reported at 32.4 thousand, which represents a drop of 6.6 percent from the previous quarter. This service accounted for about 3.4 million sessions, which corresponds to 35 sessions per user per month, nearly triple the number of sessions reported in 3Q2011.
During the quarter, the balance of roaming traffic (roaming in traffic and roaming out traffic) was positive in the case of traffic volume in minutes. Roaming in traffic exceeded roaming out traffic by 48 percent. The 3rd quarter is normally characterized by a surplus in the roaming balance. The average number of users of international roaming outside Portugal represents 7.8 percent of total mobile stations used.
Consult the statistical report:
- Mobile Services - 3rd quarter 2012 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1147842
