Broadband attracts 565,000 customers - Internet access - first quarter 2004

The total number of Internet access service customers rose to 7.9 million at the end of the first quarter of this year, according to data collected by the Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM). This figure indicates growth of 9.3% over the end of 2003, enabling the service to achieve a penetration rate of 75.7 accesses per 100 inhabitants.

Of the total, 565,000 customers use broadband access services, which include cable and ADSL and in March accounted for 7.2% of all Internet accesses. At the same time a slowdown in the quarterly growth of new subscriptions was noted, dropping from 18.2% growth in the last quarter of 2003 to 13.1% in the first quarter of this year.

Cable continues to be the most prevalent in the field of broadband Internet accesses, reaching 340,000 customers, 7.5% more than at the end of 2003.

Despite accounting for only about 40% of broadband accesses, ADSL has enjoyed higher growth rates, increasing by 22.5% to 226,000 customers.

The broadband service penetration rate thus stood at 5.4 accesses per 100 inhabitants last March, as against a 4.8% rate in December of last year.

The remaining Internet access service customers, 93% or 7.3 million customers, use dial-up accesses. This access type by itself grew by 9% from the last quarter of 2003 to the first one of 2004.

At the end of the first quarter of 2004 there were 50 authorised entities registered to provide Internet access service, of which 22 were operational.

Of the inactive entities, 14 had yet to begin activity and 14 were not providing service because they had either ceased or suspended provision of same, while maintaining the respective registration. 

Consult:

• Postal services https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=277884