“A Portuguese person who does not have access to the internet is discriminated against”

“HToday, a Portuguese person who does not have access to the internet is discriminated against, whether he is a student, whether he is a worker, whether he is for leisure purposes, whether he is a tourist, whether he is… in short, there will not be a digital nomad where there is no internet”, said Cadete de Matos at a hearing of the Commission for Public Administration, Land Planning and Local Power.

At the hearing, at the request of the PSD parliamentary group, it intended to address the problems in mobile telecommunications services in low-density territories.

In this sense, Cadete Matos added that without effective access to the network “the country will always have an asymmetry in economic development”, in social development and in access to health services through the internet.

The president of Anacom also said that the regulator has been carrying out studies to cover the area of ​​each municipality – having presented last week the 67th, referring to the municipality of Pedrógão Grande.

Cadete de Matos explained that the tests are carried out through measurements of signal quality using various equipment and that, “curiously, many measurements still reveal a 2G signal”.

“We are in 5G, but there are many measurements in which the available signal is 2G, it is not even 4G”, he said, pointing out that this type of signal only allows you to make calls.

The head of Anacom also regretted that the lack of coverage in certain regions of the country represents, “in essence, a market failure” and, in this field, pointed to the possibilities with the entry of new service providers in the market.

Referring to the Spanish case, Cadete de Matos pointed out that there are companies that enter the market and see customers dissatisfied due to the lack of coverage as “the first ones who can knock on the door”.

“This creates a dynamism that allows you to increase the degree of coverage in the territory”, he noted.

Likewise, he rejected that investment for network coverage in Portugal is financed by public funds.

“I ask: the Portuguese pay for the most expensive communications in Europe, why should we use taxpayers’ money, too, to finance companies, to take the mobile network, where they can compensate, obviously, by reducing their margins of profitability?” asked Cadete de Matos.

On World Internet Day, the president of Anacom defended that Portugal does not have competitive offers for access and again welcomed the entry of new companies that could be an incentive for competitiveness.

“Digi (which bought lots of 5G spectrum in Portugal), next door in Spain, offers a gigabyte of optical fiber for 20 euros. Here in Portugal, the three operators charge 40 euros with 24 months of loyalty”, he pointed out, insisting again on the loyalty modality.

Cadete de Matos has been a critic of the 24-month loyalty model by telecommunications operators.

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