Disaggregating by region, “the coverage in Lisbon and the Azores was higher than the average”, indicated Anacom, highlighting “the growth in the number of cabled households verified in the Center (+ 8.8 percent), Madeira (+ 8.5 percent), Algarve (+ 7.8 percent) and Alentejo (+ 5.3 percent), regions where the coverage of high-speed networks approached the national average, thus reinforcing territorial cohesion”, said the regulator.

The entity also said that the “number of cabled wires with fibra ótica amounted to around 5.4 million, 9.1 percent more than in the previous year (it had grown 6.7 percent in 2019), having reached a coverage of 85,6 percent” and that “the number of cabled households with high-speed access supported on cable television networks increased 0.1 percent compared to the previous year, totalling 3.8 million. The coverage of this type of network was 59.4 percent”.

In addition, “at the end of 2020, about 73.6 percent of households had subscriptions to high-speed services at a fixed location”, with “in the regions of Lisbon (90.3 percent), Azores (83 percent) and Madeira (81.9 percent) registered above average penetrations”.

“In the Algarve (70.7 percent), North (70.3 percent), Centro (62.6 percent) and Alentejo (52.7 percent) regions, where the spreading of these services is lower, the values the national average”, said Anacom.

The regulator also noted that “at the end of 2020, the number of residential customers of high-speed services at a fixed location reached 3 million, 9.3 percent more than in the same period of the previous year” and that “at least eight out of ten new customers of high-speed networks have contracted a service supported on fibra ótica networks (FTTH)”.