The Challenge of Universal Service in 21st Century Portugal

As an answer to growing public demand, the telecommunications market is providing newly developed alternative broadband infrastructures. Around the world there is a massive deployment of New Generation Telecommunications Networks (NGN). These new generation 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.