Telecommunication in Portugal

Development of telephone and internet connections

With an average download speed of 120.52 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Portugal ranks 21st in an international comparison. The upload rate was only 85.50 Mbit/second (20th place).
In mobile internet, i.e., on tablets and smartphones, Portugal comes 31st with a download speed of 59.23 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 12 Mbit was only enough for 46th place.

The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in December 2022 from 178 countries.

The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100 percent mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.

Access to the internet in Portugal from 1990 - 2021

Broadband internet in Portugal 1999 - 2021

The expansion of broadband internet in Portugal is roughly on a par with the USA. Around 82 percent of all residents have access to the internet. Around 42 percent have their own fast internet connection, which is at least faster than the former ISDN (more than 256 kbit/s). All fixed connections via DSL, cable or satellite were counted here, but not those connected to the internet via mobile communications.