Portuguese broadband growth driven by fibre

Growth in Portuguese broadband was driven by fibre connections in the first quarter of this year, with 50,000 net additions, according to figures compiled by regulator ANACOM.

According to the regulator, ADSL still accounts for the largest portion of broadband users, at 37.4% of the total, but with a declining share. Cable accounts for 35.1% of the total.

Portugal had 2.9 million broadband subscribers at the end of March, with the vast majority taking the service as part of a bundle.

Portugal Telecom is the market leader with a 47.7% share, followed by cable and pay TV operator Nos with 35.4%. Cable operator Cabovisão holds a 5% share. Vodafone was the only service provider to raise its share of the fixed broadband market, adding 3.5 percentage points to give it an 11.3% market share.

Portugal Telecom’s Meo took the largest slice of the mobile broadband market, with a 48.6% share, followed by Nos with 27% and Vodafone with 24.1%. In this case, Nos and Meo increased their shares, while Vodafone’s share of mobile fell by 6.6 percentage points.