Around 59.2% of households had a fixed-line telephone in December 2006, according to an electronic communications survey carried out for ANACOM by Marktest. This figure is in line with the percentage recorded for February 2006.
In December 2006, 4.2% of those surveyed who did not have a fixed line expressed their intention to subscribe to the fixed telephone service within one year.
The main reason for not having a fixed-line telephone given by those surveyed was the use of mobile phones (75.3% of respondents), while the second most given reason was the monthly charge (19.5% of respondents).
The survey also reported that 82.2% of households with a fixed line were customers of PT. Tele2 was the second most popular operator (13.1%), followed by Cabovisão (7.4%). PT was also the operator most used for making calls (68.8%), followed again by Tele2 (12.9%).
In December 2006, 16.3% of fixed telephone service customers used more than one fixed-line operator. In February 2006, this percentage stood at 19.1%. This decline can be explained by the fact that in the period between February and December 2006 a fall of 9% was recorded in the number of customers using call-by-call selection and there was a 15.2% fall in the number of customer using pre-selection.
In December 2006, 40.6% of fixed telephone service customers had already switched operator at least once; of these, 85.5% employed fixed number portability.
''Dissatisfaction with prices'' continued to be the reason most given for switching fixed operator (48.9% against 64.7% in February). The fact that the ''new operator does not have a monthly charge'' is the second most given reason for switching (given by 19% of respondents), with the frequency of this response having increased by 13% compared to February. Interest in trying out new services/products was the reason given for switching by 9.9% of those surveyed, compared to 8.1% in February, while 5.7% switched because the previous operator did not offer a package that included Internet access. In February this percentage stood at just 2%.
In December 2006, 87.7 of Portuguese residents over 15 had a mobile phone, according to the survey, 3.2% more than the figure recorded in February.
The possibility of always being contactable was given as the main advantages of the mobile service over the fixed service (49.1%). Mobility was the second most cited reason (39.9% of respondents).
Mobile service users are satisfied with the quality of the service (97.9%).
According to the survey, TMN is the operator with the largest share of customers (45.3%), followed by Vodafone with 38.7% and Optimus with 14.7%.
In December 2006, 19.9% of mobile service customers had switched operators at least once, 0.6% more than in February 2006.
The main reason given for switching mobile operator was the fact that ''Most of [the customer's] contacts are customers of the new operator'' (44.6%, up 10% compared to February 2006); dissatisfaction with prices remained the second most given reason (33.8%).
The survey also found that the percentage of clients who had used portability of their mobile number had increased 2.5% from February to stand at 4.7%.
In December 2006, 22% of mobile phone users were reported to have 3G apparatus, a rise of 6% from February. These users correspond to an effective penetration rate of 16.7% of the Portuguese population.
The percentage of customers with 3G apparatus who use their mobile phone to access the internet doubled to reach 24.9%.
The Tariff Monitor on the website of ICP-ANACOM has been used by 3% of mobile service customers.
In December 2006, 43.3% of households had a subscription television service.
According to the survey, TV Cabo is the most widely used operator for this service (76.1%), with Cabovisão the second most used operator (16.1%).
The population targeted for this survey were individuals of either sex, aged 15 or over, resident in Continental Portugal and the Autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores. The sample was structured by region and residence, with selection performed by quota of sex, age, education and occupation. In total 2,519 interviews were carried out, of which 997 were done by mobile phone and 1522 by fixed-line.
The fieldwork and processing of the information was performed MARKTEST between 17 January and 22 February 2006.
Consult:
- Electronic Communications Consumer Survey - December 2006 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=863284
