If you’re thinking about moving to Portugal, one of the things on your to-do list will be to arrange broadband or fibre internet for your phone and some kind of phone plan, prepaid or contract, that provides you with internet data on the move.
In Portugal, there are three main internet service providers: MEO (pronounced mayo), NOS (pronounced Nawsh), and Vodafone. They’re also the main mobile phone networks in Portugal, although you also have smaller networks such as Lycamobile which “piggyback” on these networks. That essentially means they don’t own their own masts or infrastructure, but run their own networks on another company’s infrastructure.
So, which company is the best?
“As long as you’re able to get fibre at your address, I don’t think there’s a difference in quality between each of the providers,” says Fernando Mendes, an expert in Portuguese telecommunications. “I’m personally with MEO because that was the only company that would provide fibre at my address in Central Portugal, but I would have looked at either of the other companies if they offered fibre internet [at my address].”
For his mobile phone plan, Fernando is with Vodafone, but again, this is just because he felt like it was the best option for him in the area he’s living. Had MEO or NOS been better options, he would happily have gone with them.
Generally, Fernando suggests that newcomers opt for MEO if they have a choice of companies that offer fibre at their address. The reason for this is that MEO has the best fibre coverage of each of the three providers so if you decide to move home mid-contract, you’re most likely to get fibre with MEO at the next property. He also recommends being cautious with NOS before signing up and to double check that they genuinely offer fibre-optic internet.
“The only provider that I’m a little cautious about is NOS because even though they advertise as having fibre in certain areas, sometimes that’s fibre with a coaxial cable, and the speed can drop a little bit with this. They still consider it fibre, however.”
MEO are also the first company in Portugal to offer 10 gbps home internet, which is ten times faster than what was previously available. Most people don’t need speeds this fast, however, it could be useful for those working in industries that are data-heavy, such as video editors.
Checking if You Can Get Fibre Internet
As Fernando mentions, the best broadband internet provider is the one that offers fibre internet at your address. This is something you should always check before renting or buying, which you can do using the form below.
Alternatively, you can check by going into the shops of each of the three providers, MEO, NOS, and Vodafone and ask them individually. This is better than checking online since most online internet checkers don’t look at your full address, but just your postcode. That means that if there’s fibre available anywhere in the postcode, you’ll get a positive result but in reality, you might find out later that you can’t get fibre internet at all.
Checking The Best Mobile Phone Operator
Generally, the best mobile phone network for you is the one that offers the best coverage at your home and in your area. Using a coverage map checker, like those offered by nPerf, is one way of checking, but there is a way to be more thorough.
Get one or two prepaid or PAYG sim cards from the networks you’re considering and put them into your phone to see which offers the most bars. You can also use a speed test website, such as speedtest.net, to check the typical upload and download speeds. Be sure to test it several times during the day, particularly after dinner which is peak usage time.
If you’re going with MEO for your home internet in Portugal, however, Fernando recommends that you go with them for your mobile phone as well, assuming they offer good coverage in your area. The reason for this is that it’s typically cheaper to bundle your home internet and cell phone plan together. You can even put all of your family members on the same plan, and this typically results in lower costs and more data for everyone.
“Let’s suppose you get home internet and a sim card with 10 gb of data and you request sim cards for four members of your family. Instead of everyone getting 10 gb of data each, the operators normally multiply the requested data by the number of people on the plan. So in this case, everybody would get 40 gb of internet but would pay as if they were paying for 10 gb.”
What Happens if I Can’t Get Fibre Internet?
If you can’t get fibre internet, you will normally be able to get satellite or 4G internet. How good is this? According to Fernando, it’s definitely not as good as fibre internet but it’s usually good enough.
“When we talk about satellite or 4G internet, we’re talking about receiving internet via a satellite. This is different to the satellite dishes used for TVs. 4G internet or satellite internet is the same as having a 4G data sim card and putting it in a router with unlimited traffic. Obviously, the speed isn’t as good as fibre, and that’s understandable.
“In terms of speed, most operators will tell you that the speeds go up to 40 Mbps. However, when I tell clients what they can expect, I’m very down to earth and in reality you get an average of 10-15 mbps. You have to be in a really good location to get more than that on a 4G connection.”
“You can survive on it. You won’t have a problem having one person on it using YouTube and other streaming services but if you start to add more people, it might not be enough.
However, if you live in an area that isn’t served by fibre internet, which is typical in some rural parts of Portugal, you may only have 4G internet as an option.