Altice Portugal S.A. (formerly known as PT Portugal) is the largest telecommunications service provider in Portugal. Since 2 June 2015 the company has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Altice, a multinational cable and telecommunications company with a presence in France, Israel, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, French West Indies/Indian Ocean Area, the Dominican Republic, and Switzerland. It currently owns the MEO, Moche and SAPO brands.
The assets in Portugal were sold to Altice[3] in 2015 per request of Oi SA to reduce debt.[4] The African assets were mostly sold for the same reason.
The business group formerly called Portugal Telecom, SGPS, SA was divided into PT Portugal SGPS, SA - a company with assets such as MEO - and PT SGPS, a financial holding company with 25.6% of Oi and with a risk investment valued at approximately 900 million euros - which after May 29, 2015 is called Pharol, with headquarters in Amoreiras Plaza.[5][6]
History
The first telephone experiments in Portugal connected Carcavelos to the Central do Cabo in Lisbon, in 1877. In 1882, the Edison Gower-Bell Telephone Company was established in both Lisbon and Porto, to develop the respective telephone service concessions. In 1887, the concession was transferred to APT - The Anglo Portuguese Telephone Company, which lasted until 1968, when the Public Company "Telefones de Lisboa e Porto" (TLP) was created. The Post Office, Telegraphs and Telephones (CTT) operated the telephone service in the rest of the country. For the operation of radiotelegraphy and wireless telephone, a contract with the Marconi's Wireless Telegraphy Company concession was confirmed in 1922. In 1925, the "Companhia Portuguesa Rádio Marconi" (CPRM) was set up and took on all responsibilities of the previous concession.
In 1970, CTT became a Public Company and in 1989, the TLP was transformed into a Limited Company, and was controlled by the State.
Throughout October 1992, the Portuguese government and the Public Service Television Corporation RTP agreed to separate the transmitter network from the rest of the corporation, transferring it to a recently created state-owned company named "Teledifusão de Portugal" (TDP). The purpose of this was to create a nationwide TV broadcasting network available for any TV station in Portugal to request its services. At the time, RTP (a "native" client of TDP) was facing competition for the first time since its creation in the 1950s. SIC required the services of TDP, but TVI decided to create its own transmitter Network (RETI), RTP's monopoly shaken after 35 years.
In 1992, CTT became a Limited Company with public capital and the Comunicações Nacionais, SPGS, SA (CN) was created, a state holding company responsible for the managing of all state participation within the sector, comprising CTT, TLP, CPRM and TDP. That year, the telecommunications operations of CTT were detached with the creation of Telecom Portugal, SA, allowing CTT to dedicate itself to postal services. With this, Portugal's telecommunications network was operated by three operators: TLP in the Lisbon and Porto areas, Telecom Portugal was responsible for the remaining national, European and Mediterranean communications; and Marconi took on international traffic. In 1994, a single national telecommunications operator was created with the combination of the companies within the CN State holding: Portugal Telecom, SA (now Altice Portugal) merged into one Telecom Portugal, TLP and TDP.
Portugal Telecom was the only telephone operator in Portugal, being a monopoly, until 1994,[7] when the government gradually reduced its control over the corporation. In 2000, Portugal Telecom became a publicly owned company.
In 2003, PT Portugal (now Altice Portugal) and Telefónica formed a joint venture, at the time, the largest mobile network operator in the Brazilian market and the southern hemisphere, Vivo with more than 30 million customers. PT, because it owned Telesp Celular, maintained a strong position in this partnership (50%). In August 2005, the company was embroiled in the Brazilian political scandal, known as the mensalão scandal, although no evidence was ever presented about the company's involvement.
Altice Portugal headquarters in Lisbon since 1994
In early 2007, the Portuguese conglomerate, Sonaecom's takeover offer for PT Portugal failed. PT's board rejected an initial bid, worth EUR 11.1 bn, in February 2006. Sonae.com's takeover bid opposed Belmiro de Azevedo (founder and historical chairman of Sonae holding company) and his son Paulo Azevedo (then the head officer of Sonaecom telecommunications operator) to the investor José Berardo and PT's administrators Zeinal Bava and Henrique Granadeiro.[clarification needed] In April 2007 the European Commission gave an ultimatum to the Portuguese government ordering it to give up on the 500 golden shares pack that it owned on the company and that enable special veto powers to the government on vital issues. This could give the government a decisive role in the bid by any company to buy Portugal Telecom. In November 2007, Portugal Telecom spun off its media assets (PT Multimédia), that included TV Cabo and Lusomundo Cinemas, and it changed its name to ZON Multimedia (later by NOS since 2014). In January 2008, the European Commission began legal proceedings against the Portuguese government over its 'golden share' in incumbent telecoms operator Portugal Telecom. The 500 golden shares with extended voting rights, allowing it to block potential takeover bids, were the reason for the commission's legal action. Similarly, in November 2005, the commission had forced the Spanish government to give up its golden share in the other telecommunications' major player in the Iberian Peninsula, the Spanish telecoms giant Telefónica.
In December 2009, Portugal Telecom purchased RETI.
On 2 October 2013 Portugal Telecom and Brazil's Oi said they would combine operations to form a new Brazil-based company with more than 100 million subscribers.[8] The resulting company's provisional name is CorpCo.
Armando Almeida replaced Zeinal Bava at the helm of Portugal Telecom on 18 August 2014. Zeinal Bava skipped off to Oi in Brazil.[9]
On 21 November 2017 Paulo Neves resigned as CEO and was replaced by Alexandre Filipe Fonseca.[13] In 2022 Ana Figueiredo was appointed as CEO.[14]
Operations
Domestic
Altice owns MEO, the largest landline operator in Portugal.[15] Its operating brands include MEO, a quadruple play service provider and SAPO, an ISP and producer of web content. Portugal Telecom also owns Altice Labs (formerly known as PT Inovação), an IT services and research and development company; PT Contact, focused in the business of managing contact centres.
Altice Portugal's communications tower is located in Lisbon. It has a height of one hundred meters and is located in the Monsanto Forest Park, at an elevation of 187 meters above sea level, and is used for broadcasting for the entire MEO network. This tower is responsible for receiving TV signals from RTP, SIC and TVI and distributing them to the other Broadcasting Centers scattered throughout the national territory. This Centre also interconnects with the studios of these various operators, forwards TV signals to the studios and sends these signals to the Alfouvar Satellite Station (Sintra).
International
Brazil was Portugal Telecom's second-largest market. PT agreed to acquire 22.4% of Telemar Norte Leste (Oi), the country's largest telecommunications firm, in July 2010.[16] Separately it also had 29% of UOL, a major Brazil-based ISP and online service provider; and was the sole owner of Dedic, a call centre operator.[15] PT previously held 29.7% of Vivo, the country's largest mobile phone network, which it controlled jointly with Telefónica. It agreed however to sell its stake to Telefónica for €7.5 billion in July 2010.[16]
Portugal Telecom's other main international assets were based in Africa and Asia, largely in Portuguese-speaking nations. Through a 75%-owned investment holding company Africatel, PT had an effective 18.75% of Angola's largest mobile operator Unitel; 30% of Cabo Verde Telecom (CVT) of Cape Verde; 38.25% of Companhia Santomense de Telecomunicações (CST) of São Tomé and Príncipe; and 25.5% of the Namibian mobile firm MTC.[15] The firm sold a 32% shareholding in Méditel of Morocco in September 2009.[17]
In Asia Portugal Telecom owned 41.1% of Timor Telecom of East Timor.
ANACOM's responsible for TDT proposals
In February 2023, Altice Portugal renewed its membership in ANACOM to guarantee the license of DTT until the year 2030, after announcing in December 2022. The company has already inculcated the RTP, SIC and TVI channels and the ARTV channel.[18]
Fights with Media Capital
In September 2017, Portugal Telecom at the APDC session (precisely with NOS, Vodafone and RTP) complained about the fights with Media Captial in the purchase of TVI with Altice. The operators, Miguel Almeida from NOS, Claudia from PT Portugal and Mário Vaz from Vodafone made your dominant position between Altice and Media Capital[19].
After privatization the Portuguese government owned 500 golden shares in PT, which carried special rights over the company's management decisions and blocked any one shareholder from holding more than 10% of voting rights within the company.[20] The golden shares were the subject of a long running dispute between the government and the European Commission, which alleged that their existence was illegal under EU law. Portugal argued that the shares were in the public interest. A case brought before the European Court of Justice by the commission to force the government to cede its shares resulted in the announcement of their abolition in July 2011.[21]
On 2 October 2013 it was reported that Portugal Telecom and Brazil's Oi are to merge to create a Brazil-based company.[22]
Since 2 June 2015 it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Altice, a multinational cable and telecommunications company with a presence in France, Israel, Belgium & Luxembourg, Portugal, French West Indies/Indian Ocean Area and Dominican Republic (“Overseas Territories”) and Switzerland.
Brazil has both modern technologies in the center-south portion, counting with LTE, 3G HSPA, DSL ISDB based Digital TV. Other areas of the country, particularly the North and Northeast regions, lack even basic analog PSTN telephone lines. This is a problem that the government is trying to solve by linking the liberation of new technologies such as WiMax and FTTH) only tied with compromises on extension of the service to less populated regions.
Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company with registered office and headquarters located in two different places, both in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadband, and subscription television, operating in Europe and the Americas.
Portugal has a modern and flexible telecommunications market and a wide range of varied media organisations. The regulatory body overseeing communications is called ANACOM.
Vivo, known as Vivo Brazil, is a brand of Telefônica Brasil, a subsidiary of Telefónica and the largest telecommunications company in Brazil. It is headquartered in the Brooklin Novo neighborhood of São Paulo.
Oi, formerly known as Telemar, is the largest fixed telephone operator and the fourth mobile telephone operator in Brazil, being the third largest telecommunication company in Latin America. It is headquartered in Rio de Janeiro.
Brasil Telecom S.A. was a major Brazilian telecommunications company headquartered in the Brazilian capital of Brasília. The company was one of three landlines and eight mobile telephone companies – and only long-distance service provider – that emerged in Brazil following the break-up of Telebrás. Originally the company was called Tele Centro Sul, because its service covered the states in the central and southern parts of Brazil, namely Acre, Rondônia, Goiás, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, as well as the Distrito Federal. Since 9 January 2009, the company is a subsidiary of Oi.
A postal, telegraph, and telephone service is a government agency responsible for postal mail, telegraph, and telephone services. Such monopolies existed in many countries, though not in North America, Japan or Spain. Many PTTs have been partially or completely privatised in recent years, though a few, such as Posta ve Telgraf Teşkilatı of Turkey, Myanma Posts and Telecommunications of Myanmar and Tusass of Greenland, continue to remain wholly government-owned. In many of said privatisations, the privatised corporation was completely renamed, such as KPN in the Netherlands, Orange S.A. in France, BT Group in the United Kingdom, Eir in the Republic of Ireland, Swisscom in Switzerland, Telstra in Australia, Spark in New Zealand, Proximus Group in Belgium, A1 Telekom Austria Group in Austria, TDC Group in Denmark, Telia Company in Sweden and Finland, Telenor in Norway, Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan and Singtel in Singapore; whereas in others, the name of the privatised corporation has been only slightly modified, such as Telkom Indonesia in Indonesia, Telekom Malaysia in Malaysia, Deutsche Telekom in Germany, Kosovo Telecom in Kosovo, KT in South Korea, Post Luxembourg in Luxembourg and Síminn in Iceland.
CTT – Correios de Portugal, S.A. is a Portuguese company that operates as both the national postal service of Portugal and a commercial group with subsidiaries operating in banking, e-commerce, and other postal services. It was founded in 1520 by King Manuel I of Portugal, during the Portuguese Renaissance, and CTT is the oldest company still in operation in Portugal to this day.
Orange Maroc is one of three major licensed telecommunications operators in Morocco. The multi-service operator offers mobile, fixed-line, cybersecurity and mobile payment offerings.
NOS, SGPS S.A. is a Portuguese telecommunications and media company which provides mobile and fixed telephony, cable television, satellite television and internet. The company resulted from the merger in 2013 of two of the country's major telecommunications companies: Zon Multimédia and Sonae's Optimus Telecommunications.
Numericable was a major French cable operator and telecommunications services company. Numericable was originally created in 2007 from the merger between former competitors Noos and NC Numericable networks. Numericable Group SA was founded in August 2013 to act as the parent company of Numericable group companies and to offer its shares on the stock exchange. The company provides cable broadband services in France, Luxembourg and Portugal, offering digital and analog television, Internet, and phone services to homes. From 2008, Numericable also offered mobile telephone services to its customers.
MEO is a mobile and fixed telecommunications service and brand from Altice Portugal, managed by MEO - Serviços de Comunicações e Multimédia. The service was piloted in Lisbon in 2007 and was later extended to Porto and Castelo Branco.
Portugal changed to a closed telephone numbering plan on 31 October 1999; previously, the trunk prefix was '0', but this was dropped.
Television in Portugal was introduced in 1956 by Radiotelevisão Portuguesa, which held the nationwide television monopoly until late 1992. Regular broadcasting was introduced on March 7, 1957. Colour transmissions were introduced on March 10, 1980.
NOWO is a Portuguese telecommunications company. It is one of the four triple play operators in Portugal along with MEO, NOS and Vodafone. NOWO belongs to the Romanian company Digi Communications.
Digital terrestrial television in Portugal launched on 29 April 2009 with 7 free-to-air (FTA) channels. In the Azores and Madeira Islands, regional channels are available. By June 2010 TDT coverage reached 83% of the population and was expected to reach 100% by the end of 2010. The analog to digial conversion finished on 26 April 2012. The four existing analog FTA channels simulcasted in DVB-T, MPEG-4/H.264 (digital), and PAL (analog).
The Museu das Comunicações is a technology museum in Lisbon, Portugal. Dedicated to promote the study, conservation and dissemination of the historical, scientific and technological communications heritage, the museum focuses on the history of communication, particularly in Portugal.
Zeinal Abedin Mohamed Bava, was chief executive officer of Oi until October 7, 2014, when he resigned.
Timor Telecom, S.A. (TT) is an East Timorese telecommunications company, based in the national capital Dili.
The British-owned Anglo-Portuguese Telephone Company (APT) provided telephone services in Portugal's two largest cities of Lisbon and Porto between 1887 and 1967. It was locally referred to as the Companhia dos Telefones. In 1967, it was transferred to the Portuguese State.
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