Country sees 35% increase in 5G sites in Q4, Nos has most

The number of 5G mobile base stations in Portugal grew 35 percent between October and December 2022, according to data published by the National Communications Authority (Anacom). Nos expanded the most, with a 51 percent increase compared to Q3, followed by Meo (43%) and Vodafone (12%). In terms of the total number of mobile base stations, Nos is also leader with 2,985 (51%), followed by Vodafone with 1,803 (31%) and Meo with 1,054 (18%).

Of the 308 municipalities in Portugal, there are six which are not yet served with any 5G mobile base stations, compared to 37 in the previous quarter. In the 302 counties municipalities with 5G stations, 174 have base stations installed by the three operators, 78 have two, while 50 municipalities have only base stations installed by a single operator. The total area of the municipalities without 5G stations represents 46.6 percent of the national territory and corresponds to about 15 percent of the national population, Anacom found.

Meo is the operator that has 5G base stations in the most municipalities, at 285, followed by Nos (249) and Vodafone (194). At the end of December, there were 1.5 million 5G mobile internet accesses in Portugal, which makes up 15.4 percent of total mobile internet users. Traffic carried on 5G networks represented about 7.7 percent of total mobile data traffic, while average traffic on 5G networks reached 4.2 GB per 5G mobile internet user.