This would expand the current 2.3 million houses covered by the network, which Neves deemed “the largest fibre optic network in the country” to reach 3.5 million homes in 2017 before reaching the target of 5.3 million homes in 2020.


Whilst placing no financial figure on the investment required, Neves did state that the monthly expansion of 50,000 households would see 2,000 extra posts of employment created by the company with the project a strategic priority identified by PT Portugal’s owner, the telecommunications group Altice.


"I may guarantee that PT is going to invest more than last year and innovate more than last year," the former incumbent’s leader told journalists.


Neves said that the resulting network would total 30,000 kilometres and span from the north to the south of Portugal 22 times over and place the country in the world’s top ten in terms of coverage.


PT Portugal was also described as undergoing a process of in-sourcing and bringing to an end some outsourced tasks in order to guarantee there were no job losses.