The new Fixed Telephone Service providers, in activity since January 1, were responsible for carrying 10.4% of total long-distance traffic generated in Portugal during the first six months of the year, reveals data compiled by the Instituto das Comunicações de Portugal (ICP). Long-distance traffic refers to national inter-city calls and international calls made abroad, i.e. traffic that has been open to competition in indirect access since the beginning of the year.
The new operators alone carried 96,900 million minutes of long-distance traffic during the first half of the year. Portugal Telecom, in the same period, carried 833,000 million minutes of such calls.
In terms of national long-distance calls alone, the new providers carried 8.4% of total traffic, equivalent to 57.7 million conversation minutes.
In terms of international calls made abroad, 16.1% were carried by companies in activity since January 1, corresponding to 36,000 million minutes. International calls represent 7.6% of all traffic generated in Portugal during the first half of the year.
By the end of June, 2000, there were 20 Fixed Telephone Service providers licensed by ICP, of which 12 are in business activity. Of these, one operator provides only direct access, 8 provide only indirect access (10xy) and 3 provide both types of access.
On the same date, there were 330,000 clients for indirect access services in the fixed telephone services, compared to 184,000 clients at the end of March. In direct access, the latest data for the end of the first quarter suggest the existence of 3.5 million clients.
|
Categories |
PT(1) |
New |
Total(3) |
%(2)/(3) |
|
National Traffic |
|
|
|
|
|
Local and Regional(a) |
6 528 986 |
4 635 |
6 533 621 |
0.1% |
|
Long Distance(b) |
629 390 |
57 722 |
687 112 |
8.4% |
|
International Traffic |
|
|
|
|
|
Made Abroad |
203 582 |
39 165 |
242 747 |
16.1% |
|
Received from Abroad(c) |
336 691 |
12 835 |
349 526 |
3.7% |
Unit: 10,000 minutes
(a) Local and regional traffic carried by the new providers is limited to a small number of direct accesses and virtual call cards, given that the regime of open competition in indirect access for these kinds of call has not yet been opened;
(b) Long-distance national calls is understood to mean ''intercity'' calls;
(c) International calls received from abroad, in the modality of indirect delivery, were open to competition before January 1, 2000. This concerns traffic that was not generated in national territory, and is therefore not included within the generic description of "long-distance" calls.
Consult:
- Postal services https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=277884
- Fixed Telephony Service liberalised on January 1 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=13283
Related information on ANACOM's website:
- Telephone Service at a Fixed Location and Universal Service https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=2995
