The Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações, Anacom, presented in the town of Trás-os-Montes a diagnostic study of the municipality, carried out between September 27 and October 8, and concluded that Vinhais is one of the worst served municipalities in terms of mobile network and Internet.
“More than studies, we need to solve the problems”, said the president of the Chamber of Vinhais, Luís Fernandes, directly to the head of Anacom, asking for solutions for the approximately 7,000 inhabitants of the municipality spread over a vast area.
In eight days, Anacom technicians covered 800 kilometers and confirmed “what the population of the municipality of Vinhais already knew”, as acknowledged by the president of the authority, João Cadete.
The diagnosis points out that “there is an important part of the municipality that does not have access to the mobile network”.
“In every five calls that were made, one failed, and the situation is even more serious from the point of view of Internet access because in more than 50 percent of cases it was not possible to establish a connection and, even in those that were possible, the speed is very low”, he said.
There is no concrete deadline for solving the problems, but the president of Anacom was optimistic that the recent 5G auction will change the current situation, due to some obligations imposed on operators.
According to him, operators are obliged to correct coverage deficiencies, ensuring that by the end of 2023, within two years, "75% of the population of each parish must have a minimum download speed of 100 MB", number which rises to 90% in 2025.
In the Algarve there are also many problems with internet providers. In such a small country it is totally unacceptable that internet providers are more expensive and less transparent than in Nordic countries while not providing decent internet services. It is 2021 - not 1921!!!!
By K from Algarve on 07 Nov 2021, 15:38
We live 8km from Serta and after months of Meo and private broadband support trying to sort it out we are still lucky to get over 1 mgb. More often if you do a speed test it can’t even test it , signal is so low!! Thought Portugal was a leader in broadband coverage…. Not anywhere around here!!!!!
By Clark from Other on 08 Nov 2021, 11:27
It would seem Trás os Montes has been forgotten. The railway to Bragança closed nearly 30 years ago further impoverishing the region. I travelled on the line before it closed and it was well used with lots of freight (grain and aggregates). The rolling stock was sold on to Spain. One can expect to be sold short by Narcissist politicians and their corporate sponsors
By Bob Battersby from UK on 14 Nov 2021, 20:53