Business Connectivity Negatively Affects Portugal’s Connectivity Rating

Portugal’s low ranking on the 2009 Connectivity Scorecard conceals some positive aspects of their consumer connectivity infrastructure.  3G penetration is quite good, broadband penetration is close to the European median and tele-density is adequate.  Weaker areas include fiber deployment and the building of next-generation networks.  Consumer usage is average at best in the areas of internet use, banking, consumption of voice minutes and consumer software spending.

Business infrastructure is the worst performer in terms of connectivity.  PC and secure server penetration is quite low, as is business spending on IT resources.  A fair percentage of workers with ICT skills are reported, and revenue derived from Ethernet and IP is just below the median for other countries in the sample.  However, other business usage metrics score below the top performers surveyed. 

Portugal’s E-Government ranking is positive, despite low spending on computers, software and services and weak usage of online services.  The percentage of schools with broadband access is high.

Portugal Connectivity Performance by Scorecard Component