Setting Up Broadband In Portugal

When you move to Portugal one of the necessities in life will have to be getting your Broadband set up in Portugal. Unless you very rarely use it in which case a dongle will be sufficient.

I advise you though before you get into the broadband thing too closely that you open a bank account as without one you will find that you will pay a higher rate. This is just like in the UK when you pay more money if you don’t use direct debit.

Here is some more information about how the broadband system works in Portugal:

The amount of people in Portugal who use a broadband internet connection is far lower than the rest of Europe but it is quickly catching up due to the fact that there have been massive upgrades in both the cable and DSL sectors over the past couple of years.

Portugal Telecom controls most of the DSL market but due to the latest regulatory rules other companies have now entered the market which have made the pricing more competitive. All of the providers have concentrated on increasing the broadband speed and offering a better all round service and the regulator has actively encouraged this.

Cable has also showed strong growth in 2009 and this can be mainly put down to the efforts of the supplier ZON Multimédia.

There are several ADSL and broadband providers as well as ZON in Portugal and they are:

*ARTelecom

*Cabovisão

*Vodafone

*CLIX

*Telepac

*Claranet

When you have decided on the service that you require you must fill in a Formulário de Adesão which is a subscription form. Only Portuguese residents are allowed to subscribe to an internet service and whichever company you choose you will have to supply the following details.

*Name

*Your permanent or temporary address

*Tax Number

*Proof of Residence

*Passport

*Telephone number

Whilst you are waiting to get your broadband connection set up you can rely on any of the many internet cafés that have been set up in Portugal and there is also a brilliant service that is funded by the Portuguese government which enables anyone to surf the internet for free. This is known as Espaço Internetand it doesn’t matter if you live in Portugal or if you are on holiday, it is free for everyone.

Broadband in Portugal goes by the name of banda larga and it is widely considered to be better than the broadband service that is available in England due to the fact that Portugal was one of the last countries to embrace Broadband technology so therefore the system they have in place is of the latest design and technology.

Because of the geography and population in Portugal you will find that it is a common occurrence for companies who are involved with internet technology to use the country to trial the latest developments in this industry.

Because of this you will find that it is often the case that the latest internet devices will be on the market way before they arrive in the shops of the United Kingdom. A case in point is mobile broadband which is used by many people in Portugal because it allows them internet connection whilst they are out and about. You can take advantage of this when you move to Portugal and are still finding your feet because it means that you don’t have to sign up for a static broadband contract. This especially applies if you are renting a property whilst you are looking to purchase

Portugal also has a massive network of over 850 Wifi hotspots all the way through the country and these include hotels, football stadiums and airports amongst others which means that you can log into to the internet using your laptop or notebook computer.

As in the UK it is advised that you ask friends and colleagues for their broadband recommendations before you decide who you are going to sign up with and another option is to search for reviews on the internet.