The number of customers of Internet access services increased by 26% in the last three months of 2000, rising to 1.99 million accesses, according to data compiled by the Instituto das Comunicações de Portugal (ICP). Over the year, the number of customers increased by 319% between the end of 1999 (when there were 474,000 customers registered) and the end of 2000. In the same period, Internet access via cable has risen to represent 10% of all paid accesses.
Of the total number of accesses registered at the end of 2000, around 87.5% correspond to free-of-charge access. The demand for this type of access is strongest amongst individual users. By the end of 2000, the number of paid accesses by individual users had fallen by 6% in comparison with the end of 1999. There was nonetheless an increase in this type of access between the third and fourth quarter of 2000.
In terms of paid access by business customers, the number of customers increased from 66,000 at the end of the first quarter of 2000 to 81,000 by the end of the fourth quarter of the same year.
The number of customers of Internet access via cable rose to over 25,000 by the end of last year. This figure represents around 10% of the total number of paid access customers and 1.3% of all customers (paid and free-of-charge access).
This data inevitably translates to an increase in the penetration rate of Internet services in Portugal: 20% at the end of last year, compared to 5% at the end of 1999.
The service's higher growth rate, resulting from the 319% increase, was driven by a high-level of demand from customers for free-of-charge access. In this regard, it should be emphasised that there are situations in which the user accumulates more than one access, and thus the user will be double counted in the same proportion. In the same manner, but with the opposite effect, the data does not exactly reflect the number of users in existence, given that it is reasonable to assume that several users make use of each access registered.
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