According to a quality study by ICP-ANACOM, the GSM mobile networks of the three national operators TMN, Vodafone and Optimus have a not satisfactory performance in the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira, mainly regarding network coverage and service availability. There is even a generalized decay in the service provided by the mobile operators vis-à-vis the data of ANACOM's 2002 study.
The main cause for this low service availability is the poor network coverage, Optimus' network standing out. This operator does not have service in four islands of the Azores - Corvo, Flores, Graciosa and Santa Maria - and has only a partial coverage in the remaining islands.
The accessibility indicator is worse in the autonomous region of the Azores, since 22.3% of the test calls were not established or were abnormally finished during the conversational phase, against 20.8% in 2002. Madeira is better served, for as only 9.2% of the calls didn't finish normally, but even so there was a service decay vis-à-vis 2002, when this ratio was 4.9%.
Regarding audio quality, a decay in the quality of the communications was observed both in the autonomous region of the Azores and in Madeira, since 2002. In fact, in 2002 86.6% of the test calls made in Madeira had good audio quality, a figure that dropped to 53.8% in 2005. In the archipelago of the Azores 84.2% of the calls then had good quality, while in 2005 these stood only for 66.8% of all test calls made.
There are major differences between the results in urban agglomerations and the ones in road axles, mainly in the Azores.
While the analyzed urban agglomerations had an adequate coverage and very good availability, in the road axles the coverage is weak or null and the availability worrisome. Optimus stands out for the worst reasons.
According to ANACOM's study, accessibility in the urban agglomerations of the Azores is 98.5%, versus 98.9% in 2002. Regarding road axles, the ratio is 72.6% in 2005, improving slightly from 2002, when it was 71.4%.
Regarding audio quality, 68% of the calls made in the road axles have good quality, against 84.5% in 2002. These values are better than the ones registered in the urban agglomerations, which registered 62.9% of good quality calls.
In the urban agglomerations of Madeira, 97.8% of all calls are finished normally and in the road axles this ratio falls to 87.9%. Regarding audio quality, only 35.9% of the calls made in the urban agglomerations have good quality, versus 82.7% in 2002. In road axles the situation is better, with 61.7% good quality calls, but below the 89.9% ratio of 2002.
By operators, in the case of the Azores, Vodafone is the operator with the best availability ratio, of 90.5%, followed by TMN with 89.5% and Optimus with 53.1%. The same occurs with audio quality, with Vodafone having 71.6% good quality calls, TMN 65.7% and Optimus 60.1%. In Madeira, regarding availability, TMN has the best performance, with 92.4% of the calls being finished normally, followed by Vodafone with 91.3% and Optimus with 88.6%. Concerning audio quality, Vodafone has the best performance, with 57.6%. Optimus has 55.2% of good audio quality calls, while the worst performance is TMN's with a 48.8% ratio.
The following main urban aggregations of the autonomous regions were analyzed in this study by ANACOM: Ponta Delgada, Angra do Heroísmo and Funchal, as well as the main road axles of all the islands of these archipelagoes.
The measurements took place on weekdays in normal working hours, between 13 June and 13 July 2005. 5,578 test calls were made, which corresponds to 84 hours of measurements along 2749 kilometers (1,708 miles).
The study analyzed three mobile network indicators: coverage, accessibility and audio quality.
Consult:
- GSM Mobile Networks - Quality of Service Survey - Azores and Madeira https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=678499
