Portugal’s planning minister said in parliament that one of the measures the country’s infrastructure manager IP had taken to avoid connections being destroyed or damaged – as happened in the huge Pedrógão Grande fire last year and in Monchique, this year – was to “provide underground conduits”.

Pedro Marques said an agreement had been made by Altice, which owns Meo, and IP at the end of last year for the operator to use the infrastructure managers’ conduits to bury its network cobles.

Pedro Marques said he hoped that “other operators” would follow suit.

Altice/PT announced last October it would begin burying the cables for its mobile and landline systems in the area affected by the Pedrógão Grande fire.