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There is already a tool that allows consumers to verify mobile network coverage in any part of the country. Do you have .NET? was launched this Monday by Anacom and guarantees, to those who investigate it, a portrait of the degree of coverage of the mobile network of each operator, whether in the voice, SMS and MMS service (2G and 3G networks), as in to download mobile data (3G and 4G).
The service is from Anacom, but the information is guaranteed and updated by each operator with its own network, Nos, Meo and Vodafone. Based on the search criteria entered by each user, you can verify in real time the coverage of each operator in a given territory and compare with that of the competition.
The search returns results (“theoretical coverage, in an outdoor environment and ideal conditions”) that allow a new potential user to know which offer will serve them best in a given territory, or to know in advance if they are traveling or on vacation, they can ” make a call without interruptions or interference, send SMS or MMS or use the Internet to make voice or video calls, browse, make transmission video and music, and playing online ”.
For each operator, it will be stated if the voice coverage is very good, good, acceptable, limited or not available and if, on mobile Internet, there is access to fast 3G broadband (or very fast, in the case of 4G), or if there is only basic broadband, limited data access, or even unavailable service.
For now, the application is available on the Anacom Consumer Portal, but the goal is also to create an application.
Has it. In the Simplex it had been planned since 2017, but, as the former Secretary of State for Communications, Alberto Souto de Miranda, recognized in the summer in the Assembly of the Republic, there were quite a few obstacles until it left the newspaper.
According to the former governor (he left the government in September), there was considerable resistance from the operators to deliver this type of information. Today, his successor, Hugo Santos Mendes, highlighted, in the presentation of the service, that it is a tool that “greatly increases transparency” in the market and the ability to “evaluate the mobile service throughout the country.”
By providing information disaggregated by region, it will allow, for example, “to evaluate among the various possibilities of public intervention in those territories where it is unlikely that operators will provide coverage due to the absence of economic justification”, solutions that may be “share network” or “that involve public investment.”
Regulator requests legal framework
The new secretary of state considered that he has it. “It is not a point of arrival”, it is rather the beginning of a “challenge for operators, who must keep the information updated”, and also for Anacom, which must “ensure that the faults that are detected can be corrected.”
Saying that he expects the project to have “new features” in the future, he stressed that it is the “most informed options” that guarantee more informed consumers and a “more competitive market.”
The president of Anacom, João Cadete de Matos, pointed out that developing this tool implied “a long and very arduous path” and that, despite having been carried out “based on the voluntary participation of the three operators and in self-regulation initiatives”, It should not be necessary to give it an “adequate regulatory framework”, allowing it to “provide clear rules” (this includes, for example, the definition of sanctions, in the event of incorrect information being provided).
The regulator affirmed that there are still “citizens who cannot make voice calls due to the lack of a mobile network where they live and / or work”, or who “do not have access to the Internet on their mobile phones in the areas of residence and / or work.” . .
The president of Anacom also recalled the regions where there is only one service provider and “the disadvantage” of these consumers who, “having no competitive offers”, cannot change, even if they are dissatisfied.
Do you have .NET? will contribute to this diagnosis, as well as to the mobile service quality studies, which Cadete de Matos assures that Anacom will continue to carry out.
