IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE | fALL 2012 | 271932-4529/12/$31.00©2012IEEE

RAQUEL CASTRO MADUREIRA, A. MANUEL DE OLIVEIRA DUARTE, AND RAQUEL MATIAS-FONSECA

The Challenge of Universal Service in 21st Century Portugal

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2012.2211153

Date of publication: 24 September 2012

1877Timeline

MainEvents

MainInventions

PortugueseLegal

Framework

1975 1981 1986

MonopolyAround 120 Years

LiberalizationAround 13 Years

1994 1997 1999 2001 2002 2008 2009 2010 2011

1st

PrivateCopperNetwork

State-Owned

CTT/TLPRegulator

ICP

State-OwnedPortugalTelecom

OpenNetworkProvision

ICP TurnsANACOM

PrivatizationPT (Expect

GoldenShare)

CommercialOptical

Networks

OpticalNetworksin RuralZones

CEE

Law 122/94 &40/95

• PT Public Service

Law219/00

• PT SGPS

Law123/09

• Global Ducts Sharing

Law 91/97

• Teleco Law

Law 05/04

• Electronic Comm. Law

Law 68/05

• ORAC

DL 458/99

• ONP• Universal Service

Telegraph/Telephone Television Micro-

ElectronicsModems

RDIS Internet TV CableNetwork

MobilePhones

BroadbandWireless

OpticalPassive

Networks

NewGenerationNetworks

28 | IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE | fALL 2012

s an answer to grow-ing public demand, the

telecommunications market is providing newly developed

alternative broadband infrastruc-tures. Around the world there is a massive deployment of New Generation Telecommunications Networks (NGN). These new gen-eration networks have become part of new economic plans for many Telco operators and governments. Despite special plans for rural zones (in Europe [1], for example in Portugal [2]), there are no absolute guarantees that 100% of citizens will have access to broadband.

In most European countries a legal instrument, the telecom-munications Universal Service Act, guarantees access for all citi-zens, anywhere in the country, at affordable prices (upon reasonable request). These guarantees are for a certain minimum set of telecom-munications services, in order to promote social inclusiveness. This concept seemed outdated during the 1990s during a time of liberal-ization of the telecommunications sector, when telecommunications apparently provided global cover-age. In fact, mobile communications connections in Portugal increased from 81 to 151connections per 100 inhabitants during the years 2002 to 2009 [3],with coverage reaching more than 90% of the country.

With the advent of NGNs and with the changes in behavior shown by individuals and organizations rel-ative to the consumption and incor-poration of communications and information services in their patterns of life, the Universal Service concept once again became an issue [1], [4]-[6]. The story of Universal Service is entering a new chapter.

133 years of Telecommunications and Universal Service in PortugalPortugal, in southwestern Europe, has continental territory of 892 000 km2 and also includes two

archipelagos in the North Atlantic: Madeira and Açores [7]. Its current population is around 11 million cit-izens who are mostly concentrated near the coast, especially in the two major cities: Lisbon in the center, and Porto in the north. Along the coast, the population density is rel-atively balanced, but in the interior of the country, the population is sparse and concentrated in smaller villages.

from the end of the 19th cen-tury and along with the industrial revolution, the universal service concept allowed more and more citizens to have their first contact with technology by using fixed telephone service. from the early systems on through today’s mas-sive technology use, quality of life has been improved, and increases in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) can be correlated with telecommunications techni-cal developments and customer growth (fig. 1).

The chart on page 24 [10] briefly summarizes the main events of the last 133 years of modern tele-communications in Portugal. This period can be divided into two main eras: the incumbent monop-oly era and the open market era. The monopoly era is character-ized by the existence of only one telecommunications operator, the

incumbent. The services provided were practically limited to voice and over an exclusive type of infra-structure: copper twisted pair, also state-owned. Customer care was often quite poor and malfunc-tions and delays were common. During this time there was not a formal universal service concept, but there was an intrinsic concern to expand the communications service all over the country.

By the time of Portugal’s entrance into the economic European Union and market liberalization in the 1990s, new telecommunications operators and services started to emerge. Nevertheless, new private operators focused their network deployment on areas of highest economic return and some regions were left out of their plans.

In 1994, Portugal Telecom (PT) was born merging Telefones de Lisbon e Porto (TLP) and Telecom Portugal (TP), in order to create a strong telecommunications opera-tor [11], [12]. During this era, there was no legal framework concern-ing Universal Service, but the state assumed those obligations as “expected,” deploying the fixed telephone network as long as it was requested anywhere in the country.

In 1995 [13], it was agreed by law to grant PT the exploitation of

Fig. 1. Portuguese communication’s customer growth vs GDP(USD). Data processed by authors based on [8], [9].

Fixed Telephone Connections

Mill

ions

16

14

12

10

8

6

4

2

01930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

USD

5 000 USD

10 000 USD

15 000 USD

20 000 USD

25 000 USD

30 000 USD

Mobile Subscribers

Internet Access

GDP (Current US$)

A

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE | fALL 2012 | 29

the fixed telephonic infrastructure as long as PT fulfilled its Uni-versal Service obligations (USO) until 2025.

Under the influence of liberal-ization trends in the rest of Europe, PT started its privatization in 1996, a process that would end in 2005. The exception to privatization was the single share (golden share) retained by the state beside the EU recommendations [14] but demon-strating its concern about public essential utilities.

Law 91/97, called the Law of Telecommunications [15], opened the public network provision to other operators, and started to draw a legal framework for Univer-sal Service. The state assumed its responsibility as the USO provider and determined some fixed ser-vices (such as voice) over a specific type of infrastructure (the twisted copper pair network).

New approaches to full market came from Europe, and in 1999 Law 458/99 [16] applied the open network provision (ONP) to voice telephony as EU recommended in directive 98/10/EU [17]. New players appear in the fixed phone market, enabling better customer services and driving prices down. The incumbent held on for quite long time to its dominance, how-ever EU pressure and Law 29/2002 [18] started the decommissioning

of the network from the public domain. from that point on, the private market began to take over as shown in fig. 2.

The public network was opened to competition, even though the public infrastructure was still state property. The use by other opera-tors of the twisted copper pair from the public network allowed growth of the number of players within the sector, as well as growth in quality and quantity of services offered based in xDSL technolo-gies.1 This was, we believe, the basis of today’s massive Internet usage in Portugal.

Along with liberalization, another phenomenon changed the traditional fixed telephony mar-ket: mobile technology emerged as unexpected competition caus-ing serious damage to the previ-ously loyal group of fixed network subscribers.

In 2001, the former NRA, ICP, became an independent regula-tory authority with the Decree-Law No 309/01 [19] and changed its name to Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM). In order to ensure healthy comple-tion among all operators and to respond to strong pressure by the

operators, the regulator decided to open access to all state ducts (ORAC). With this measure, PT was forced to open their infra-structure to the market, [20]. The Electronic Communications Law 5/2004 [21] transposed several EC directives [22]-[25], concerning the conditions to enable practical Internet access and gave a first but significant step setting out the general principles regarding rights of way and access to con-duits within the public domain by market players.

In this period, several regional contests to deliver Internet in pub-lic places were opened under the program “Portugal Digital.”

By 2005, Portugal (and most western European countries) came under strong economic pressure. Technologies of Information and Communication (TIC) appeared to be one of the main drivers of the economy. A new plan called “Portugal Tecnológico” [26] was announced to deliver the Internet to all by incorporating small com-puters at school for children start-ing at early ages, and at elderly homes. This plan aimed to intro-duce citizens to new technology and enhanced huge operator’s investments in NGN’s: wireless broadband and passive optical networks.

Portugal was one of the first European countries to deploy fiber to the home (fTTH) and the regu-latory framework with Law 123/09 [27] and Law 32/09 [28] was quite innovative in the European context. This latest framework defined stra-tegic guidelines such as effective and non-discriminatory access to non-government ducts and other infrastructure, and the adoption of solutions aimed at eliminating or reducing vertical barriers to the rollout of fiber optics. These measures were to prevent the first operator from monopolizing access to buildings.

Despite all the technologi-cal evolution, the emphasis on

Fig. 2. Fixed telephone connections evolution in Portugal since 2001. (Source: ANACOM.)

100.0%

90.0%

80.0%

70.0%

60.0%

50.0%

40.0%

30.0%

20.0%

10.0%

0.0%2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010

Other Telco

Portugal Telecom

1The Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL) is a family of

technologies that provides digital data transmis-

sion over the wires of a local telephone network.

30 | IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE | fALL 2012

Universal Service has been the same during all of the last 133 years. Since 2005, the European Commission has reviewed the scope of the Universal Service Directive every 3 years. In 2008 several public debates concern-ing the Universal Service concept were launched among the Euro-pean players of the telecommuni-cations sector [6]. The two main issues discussed were technologi-cal neutrality and the extension to broadband [29]-[32]

The themes were also dis-cussed in Portugal [33], but in Portugal, as well as in the rest of Europe, both of the approaches were postponed as it was thought that there was no risk of informa-tion exclusion for citizens. Many of the proposals were updated as the universal service obligations. Nevertheless access to broad-band networks is expected to be widespread in the 2013 European Digital Agenda, but not as univer-sal service [34].

Current Scope of Universal Service in PortugalTo understand the Portuguese con-sumer’s behavior and the telecom-munication sector, we consider the current Portuguese telecommuni-cation market and end with discus-sion of the current framework and scope of Universal Service.

Major Portuguese consumers are well known for their open dis-position to new technologies and to new means of communication. In an 11 million inhabitants mar-ket, there are thirty-three telecom-munication service providers, and some of them use more than one access technology. Also, accord-ing to the regulator ANACOM, by the end of September 2009 there were 3 286 000 (33% of the total population) [35] fixed tele-phony subscribers . The number of mobile subscribers was around 15 500 000 (140% of total population) [36]. Portugal is in the top five of EU27 countries with respect to

highest mobile penetration per 100 inhabitants.

All providers of fixed access Internet offer broadband access. Eighteen companies use ADSL, while modem cable is used by seven, and optical fiber by ten. There are seventeen companies providing the service through other means (e.g., leased lines). Moreover, four of the providers of mobile telephone ser-vice, also provide 3rd generation mobile broadband Internet access, and are planning to move forward to the 4th generation.

New markets in high-density areas are now being captured due to the new triple/tetra play offers mainly from the incumbent, PT. Triple play includes low prices for voice fixed telephony, high-speed Internet and high definition TV/Video on demand by fiber. The third quarter of 2009 was the fourth consecutive quarter in which there was an increase of the number of direct access customers [37].

The European Commission and individual European coun-tries are aware of the social and economic benefits that may arise from increasing broadband com-munications in both the social and economic sectors. By 2010, funds from the National Strategic Ref-erence framework (NSRf) [38] were allocated by contest in order to implement broadband networks in geographic economically dis-advantaged areas. These contests required a minimum coverage of 50% of the population.

These investments, along with other regional programs, may help to reduce asymmetric develop-ment of countries, although they do not guarantee universal access to broadband systems. Because there no longer is a public telecommuni-cation operator in Portugal, access to broadband systems depends on financial investments from, and the assurance of economic return to private operators.

The Universal Service concept was designed [15] to accompany

liberalization, to safeguard reason-able access at an affordable price. The USO led to huge investments without an assured financial return. In this case it is understood that the intangible returns, like social benefits and social well-being are worth the investment. So the objec-tive of Universal Service is to pro-vide social benefits to all citizens without discrimination through technology, and the main objective of the Universal Service provider (USP) is to find metrics to measure those intangible returns, and bal-ance them with network deploy-ment investments (fig.  3). If the social benefits cannot be correctly measured or understood, the swing moves to the investment side and Universal Service is considered as a burden.

The Portuguese (and European) requirements for the Universal Service concept include the follow-ing items:

■ Scope of Universal Service (USO);

■ Designation of providers (USP);

■ financing mechanism.

In this 21st century scenario, the Universal Service obliga-tions in Portugal are according to Decree-Law 458/99 [16]: mature fixed twisted copper for robust voice and data rates sufficient to permit functional Internet access, public payphones, paper directo-ries, directory enquiry service, and emergency number access. Univer-sal Service’s special fares are also applied for disabled and elderly

UniversalService

UniversalService

SocialBenefits

NetworkInvestment

Fig. 3. The Universal Service swing concept.

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE | fALL 2012 | 31

citizens. However, these special fares might rise as maintenance costs rise.

As previously mentioned since 2005, the Portuguese USP is Por-tugal Telecom [13], the former incumbent. Since 2008, several Portuguese operators presented their motivation to be candidates for USP as it was regulated [16]. Nominee mechanisms should be efficient, objective, nondiscrimina-tory, and transparent; but the USP designation was conceded to Por-tugal Telecom until 2025 and the regulator is still trying to get to a consensus among the players to circumvent the situation. In 2002 infringement procedures were opened for incorrect implementa-tion of the EU’s directives [14]. By 2011,  the regulator launched a national discussion about the USO provider and its responsibilities in order to determine recommenda-tions to the Government on the matters that fall within their area of expertise [39].

USO Net Cost (USNC) is the difference between operating with a Universal Service obligation and without one. Any benefits includ-ing indirect and intangible benefits have to be assessed to calculate it and should be presented annually by the USP to be audited or veri-fied by the NRA and made public in an annual report.

Most EU member states allow Universal Service financing com-pensation only from sector- specific funding. Some members, as Portu-gal, allow both public and sector specific funding and two EU mem-bers only allow public funding.

Since 2001, by the time PT became a private company and was defined as the national Universal Service provider, it has claimed that the USO is a financial bur-den and that PT should have some financial support, as determined by the nº1, art. 5º from EU Directive 97/33/EU [40], [16]. The regula-tor ANACOM did not accept PT’s claim, as there were no conditions

to accept the net costs of the Uni-versal Service provision estimates for 2003 nor the estimate reviews for 2001 and 2002 presented by PT [41]. This subject is still pending.

Universal Service ChallengesThe main challenge of Universal telecommunications service in the dawn of the 21st century is to find a concept that can achieve the reli-ability of its predecessor, the twisted copper pair, but also can move towards a new definition of commu-nications utility that can help deliver equal opportunities to all consum-ers. from the technological point of view, there are several technologies that are candidates to become both new generation networks and Uni-versal Service providers.

The main concept of a NGN is the evolution from a circuit-switched network (such as the traditional voice communication network) towards the packet-switched paradigm. NGN are part of the technologi-cal evolution of the telecommuni-cations world as it responds to the demands of consumers. The aging population is one of the megatrends that are shaping today’s economic and social understanding. There are growing concerns about health, entertainment, sports, and fitness. A NGN can respond to most con-sumer needs by providing long distance services such as telemedi-cine, video- conference classes, and telework.

Several studies [42]-[44] have already been done that focus

on various facets of NGN’s deploy-ment in access networks. Stud-ies specific to Portugal such as the BCG study [42], quantify the potential impact of services to  be offered by NGN based on fiber to the home in specific areas.

Eight areas of economic and social impact were identified as priority benefits to new NGN based services: health and social work, security and justice, educa-tion, public administration, mobil-ity and logistics, commerce and retail, tourism and media, enter-tainment and culture. Accord-ing to this study, NGN service deployment in Portugal will result in a significant increase in public good, including an approximately 1.8% increase in GDP. The mea-sure of this impact is the sum of the contributions of three major areas: economic, environmen-tal, and social impact. The direct impact will come in three differ-ent waves (see fig. 4):

■ The first wave, valued at 900 million Euros, will come through improved services for faster connections and reli-able Internet, such as virtual classrooms, sharing of crimi-nal intelligence, virtualization, and utility or telepresence.

■ The second wave of impacts, valued at 700 million Euros, will come from e-working, interactive advertising, vir-tual tourism, and shopping by television.

Policy/Regulation Acceptance ICT Knowledge

1st Wave: 900M

E-W

orki

ng,

Tour

ism

E-M

edic

ine

Tele

-Pre

senc

e

2nd Wave: 700M 3rd Wave: 300M

Fig. 4. NGN’s economic impact in Portugal, adapted from BCG [41].

32 | IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE | fALL 2012

■ The third wave, which involves the widespread use of vir-tual consultations for surgery, for  example, is valued at 300 million Euros.

According to the European Commission model [43], consid-ering the actual adoption rate, broadband development is likely to contribute to the creation of 1  076  000 jobs in Europe and a broadband-related growth in eco-nomic activity of €849 billion between 2006 and 2015. Accord-ing to the model, in the worst case, broadband development will result in a creation of 345  000 jobs in Europe between 2006 and 2015; while in the best case, 2  112  000 jobs could be created.

The perspectives demonstrated by some of the recognized stud-ies are quite optimist and predict a brighter future concerning welfare of the population and economy of the countries involved.

Other studies however are not as optimistic [44]. Different mod-els suggest that civil engineering costs (among other costs) for the fiber networks deployment will limit the deployment of the fTTH to high density areas, leaving other zones, mainly rural areas, out of the NGN wave. This would, in turn, limit prospects for economic development.

It is exactly here that the scope of the Universal Service should be reevaluated to find mechanisms to provide broadband access to all citizens in the territory in a nondis-criminatory way. Different types of infrastructure and technology should be evaluated and the type of service delivered should not be imposed.

Universal Service – Force for Fairer Society DevelopmentThe Universal Service concept has proven to be a driving force for a fairer society development that builds bridges among populations, countries, and continents.

In the 1990s, the concept of Universal Service seemed to be forgotten in the midst of rapid technological development and the popularity of other types of tele-communication services. There are good perspectives that the use of data communication will be used by an increased number of citizens in a short time, thus the lack of availability might result in social exclusion for those who cannot afford it.

The Internet became a ser-vice with a regular presence in several aspects of our daily lives: in education, government, com-merce, industry, and health. Soon, narrowband might no longer be suf-ficient to allow functional Internet access, one of the current Universal Service requirements in Portugal and in several other countries.

In Portugal, there are already several players deploying new generation networks, such as fTTH in fixed technologies and LTE in mobile technologies. Nevertheless there are no guarantees that 100% of citizens will have access to it, despite the plans for the rural zones. With the advent of NGN’s and with the risk of a growing digital divide among citizens, Universal Service has again become a significant issue in Europe and in Portugal.

Therefore it is timely to revisit the concept of Universal service. further studies ought to analyze which technologies should be adopted, which services should be considered universal, what are the player’s responsibilities and the regulation frame beneath. The history of Universal Service in Portugal has not ended, but it is entering a new chapter.

Author InformationRaquel Castro Madureira and A. Manuel De Oliveira Duarte are with the Instituto de Telecomunica-ções, Departamento de Electrónica, Telecomunicações e Informática, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 AVEIRO Portugal.

Raquel Matias-fonseca is with the Departamento de Economia, Gestão e Engenharia Industrial, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.

Email: rcmadureira@ua.pt; duarte@ua.pt, rfonseca@ua.pt.

AcknowledgmentThe authors wish to acknowledge fundação da Ciência e Tecnologia, the Portuguese foundation for Sci-ence and Technology, for the schol-arship granted to the PhD student Raquel Castro Madureira.

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