Executive Summary
90.2% of households with fixed broadband
By the end of the 3rd quarter of 2022 (3Q2022), the penetration rate of fixed broadband residential customers was 90.2 per 100 households, up 3.0 percentage points (p.p.) from the same period last year.
Fixed broadband grew by 3.5% in the last twelve months
Compared to the same quarter last year, the number of fixed broadband accesses increased by 152 thousand (+3.5%) to reach 4.4 million.
Fibre optics (FTTH) was the main form of fixed broadband internet access, reaching 62.8% of total accesses, up 4.0 p.p. from the 3rd quarter of 2021 (3Q2021). FTTH was also the main driver of the growth in the number of accesses. Over the past 12 months, the number of accesses supported on fibre optics increased by 265 thousand accesses (+10.5%).
Accesses supported on cable TV networks decreased by 0.5%, and represented 26.9% of the total (-1.1 p.p. than 12 months ago). Fixed accesses supported on mobile networks decreased by 7.4% and represented 5.8% (-0.7 p.p.). ADSL accesses maintained their downward trend, having decreased by 31.3%, replaced by next generation accesses. ADSL represented 4.4% of the total number of accesses (-2.2 p.p.).
87.4% of accesses with advertised download speeds of at least 100 Mbps
By the end of the first half of 2022 (1H2022), 87.4% of fixed broadband accesses were ultra-fast broadband accesses (i.e. download speed1 greater than or equal to 100 Mbps), up 4.2 p.p. from the previous year.
In July 2021, Portugal was the fourth country in the European Union (EU27) with the highest proportion of accesses with download speeds of 100 Mbps or more.
The increase in the proportion of ultra-fast broadband accesses took place at the same time as the development of fibre optic networks (FTTH) and the introduction of DOCSIS 3.x in cable TV networks. These two types of networks accounted for 68% and 30% of accesses with at least 100 Mbps, respectively.
Fixed broadband traffic up 12.8%, reaching new all-time high and double pre-pandemic levels
Total fixed broadband internet traffic increased by 12.8% compared to the same period last year, exceeding the record high achieved in the pandemic period, and reaching double the pre-pandemic levels (last quarter of 2019).
Average monthly traffic per access was 252 GB, 8.9% more than in the same period of the previous year. As of the third quarter of 2021, COVID-19 no longer had an impact on average traffic per access, gradually resuming the growth trend observed in the pre-pandemic period. This evolution is likely to be associated with the end of main measures implemented to address the pandemic.
Provider shares
In the fixed broadband Internet access service markets, there are four bodies with relevant shares of subscribers: MEO (40.8%), the NOS Group (34.1%), Vodafone (21.6%) and NOWO (3.0%). In comparison with the same quarter last year, Vodafone was the provider whose access share increased the most (+0.5 p.p.), while MEO was the provider that attracted the most customers in net terms, having increased its share by 0.1 p.p. The shares of the NOS Group and NOWO decreased (0.4 p.p. and 0.2 p.p., respectively).
Taking only residential accesses into account, MEO obtained the highest share of subscribers (39.2%), followed by the NOS Group (36.4%), Vodafone (20.7%), and NOWO (3.4%). Vodafone and MEO’s shares increased 0.5 p.p. and 0.1 p.p., respectively, whilst the NOS Group and NOWO’s shares decreased 0.4 p.p. and 0.3 p.p., respectively.
As regards fixed broadband traffic shares, MEO reached 41.4% in 3Q2022, followed by the NOS Group with 30.6% and Vodafone with 24.4%. NOWO’s market share was 1.8%. Compared to the same quarter last year, Vodafone was the provider whose traffic share increased the most (+1.8 p.p.), followed by MEO (+0.8 p.p.) and NOWO (+0.2 p.p.). The share of the NOS Group fell 3.0 p.p.
