One of the greatest frustrations to any new resident in Alda de Lisboa is trying to get one’s communications services up and running. We have a very unfortunate situation in that Portugal Telecom and its subsidiaries are still exercising their monopolistic situation years after it was supposed to have been broken by European legislation.
The situation is scandalous.
The excuse is that Alta de Lisboa is connected to a remote exchange.
The only way to get Internet and TV is through TV Cabo (one of PT’s subsidiaries) as they say we are too far from the local exchange.
(I should give a brief mention of Artelecom which also provides services but I have had VERY bad experiences with this company – see end of post)
Fortunately we are able to access the phones of Mobile operators who offer very competitive deals (they undercut prices by almost 90%). However there is no way to access the Internet.
On this map, one is able to see how ridiculous this situation is… we are only 5km from Portugal Telecom’s Headquarters in the heart of the country. There are small villages all over the remote countryside that have better connection options than us.
Now I believe this may have been a real problem when Alta was a brand new urbanization, however there are areas in Alta which are nearing 10 years old.
Here is a brief run down of services on offer ( for the sort of thing I want):
Portugal Telecom – Telephone only (Approx 16€ monthly) + phone calls Total = €16 (no tv or internet)
TV Cabo TV, Internet and Telephone : (40 Channels TV, 8Mbs and free phone calls to landlines) 22€ + 35€ + € 10 = €67 (currently on promotion for limited time at €45 and 12mbs)
Artelcom TV, Internet and Telephone (approx 40 channels, 5Mbs and expensive phone calls) = €46 (note new technology not proven to be very stable)
Vodafone casa phone only (free calls to landlines and cheap mobile calls) €10
Optimus Home phone only (expensive phone calls)
Now if the area was open to more operators we would also have the following options:
Clix TV Internet and telephone (21 channels, 12 Mbs and free phone calls to landlines at night ) = €30
Clix TV Internet and telephone (21 channels, 24MbS and free phone calls to landlines Europe (all day) = €40
Vodafone Adsl Telphone and Internet (24Mbs and free landine calls (all day) = €40 (currently on promotion for €10)
So as you can see, Residents of Alta de Lisboa are being cheated into paying the higher PT tax.
What is alittle frightening is the websites will tell you that can install any of these services, however on application you are told it is not possible.
Let’s hope Anacom are aware of this situation and haven’t been bought by PT to keep quiet about it.
My next move is to launch an official complaint to PT and Anacom.
I’ll keep you posted with the outcome.
My Artelcom Nightmare
I will keep this brief but any resident reading about this situation and thinking about new phones should know some of what is going on out there:
We asked for the service being glad to be free of the PT tax.
Sadly it never worked properly: the speeds were well below those advertised, The channels offered by the salesman never came (remember this if a salesman tells you “oh yes we are getting that channel soon” or for that matter if you receive a letter with your bill mentioning a new tv channel.) and the connection fell whenever it rained.
So I complained and complained and complained… no solution was offered.
On day an Artelcom sales person said I ought to threaten to switch off the service and then they would fix it.
So I tried out this method… sure enough, they got straight back in contact with me and sent their technician round to my house at 7pm the next day or was it 8 or 9 or 10…no, I remember now it was at midnight when the technician decided to finally fix our situation.
So the speed was fixed, they lent me a new modem and said I should have received it much earlier (it’s amazing how much technicians and sales people say to you, to the detriment of their comany, when they are trying to make things better).
Unfortunately the stability was never fixed.
During all this time I was in contact with my account manager, who convinced me that they would solve the problem, otherwise I could quit without paying any extra fee.
Well the situation was not resolved and I quit.
The following month I received a bill for the services I would never use due to the company’s incompetence.
This was a while ago.
I still get phone calls asking for the money.
You can bet your socks I am not going to pay.
September 29, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Hi, I live in Alta de Lisboa for almost 2 years, and I have ADSL service from PT since I moved here. And I also know some people that live here also, anda they have Clix or PT service for ADSL.
I don’t know if you’re being correct with your statements about Alta de Lisboa.
September 30, 2007 at 12:49 am
Hi JC,
Thanks for your comment. Out of interest, where do you live in Alta?
Most of us have tried lots of times to get anything other than Netcabo or Artelecom and have failed. I, myself have tried about 6 or 7 times over the last three years and every time I get the answer that we have a “central remota” and it will not be possible to connect us. I suppose some lucky residents may live nearer Quita da Lambert and have access. To see more complaints of this sort just look through the forums on http://www.altadelisboa.net and you see that many have problems here and can ONLY get Netcabo or PT (and sometimes not even PT).
If you live anywhere near Condominios da Torre I’d like to get in touch so I can inform Anacom of the situation.
Thanks
Tom
October 18, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Hi, I live near av. Krus Abecassis.
October 18, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Hi JC,
Thanks for your reply, it’s good to know that the whole area hasn’t been forgotten. I suspect Cond. torre has though!
Maybe the post should be Condominios da torre and Sao gonçalo (judging by comments on Resident’s portal) without broadband or something.
Do you know if the Clix users are zonas Clix? Do you know anyone who has anything else?
Thanks again
Tom
October 21, 2007 at 10:10 am
Hi!
1 – Telephone? ‘Home’, an optimus product, we have to charge it with a minimum of 12,50 a month (spent in telephone calls). I have the traditional phone model, not the cell-like model. The best!
2 – TV ? Must see news all day, at night rather do somehing else. And as I’ve got teens and they must study – no TV (only 4 national channels).
3 – NET? Canguroo, of course!
This is my solution, happy with it, and not that expensive…
November 17, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Now I’m experimenting the new PT’s MEO service.
January 14, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Working in one of the named operators at the DSL department, I know the anguish that a lot of people suffer because of those remote exchanges you talk about. Trust me, there are a LOT of people in your situation. Those damn PT guys got the perfect way to assure their customer base. Relocate everyone from large phone exchanges to those smaller (basically, small closets lying in the side of the street) and fill them up with their own DSL equipment, denying (for lack of space and power requirements) other operators to have their own equipment. Mostly everyone at Parque das Nações suffers the same, as well as a lot of people in highly populated areas in the city.
You didn’t need to draw the line to the center of decisions. There’s a PT exchange very close to you at Alameda das Linhas de Torres, in front of the Hospital (if I recall). That’s way closer
My advice is for you to try out the new PT triple play offer (Meo) and see if it suits your needs. Have to admit they’re using their dominant position in a wise way and managed to launch a strong product. Getting everything in one bill also helps reducing the overall cost, as strange at it may seems. And if you run into a commercial bastard, try to bargain. They have some flexibility to give you more for your plan if there’s another operator around, as long as you mention that.
If you’re not into supporting PT further, stick to TVCabo for TV, get a decent phone plan from a mobile carrier and some sort of internet access from a mobile carrier as well because you don’t mention it anywhere and there are already home routers you can use with their USB connectivity gizmos. It all depends on your needs and you should be the one choosing your tariff plan according to them. I’m sure you’re able to find a better way to spend your money than on PT.
AFAIK, the regulator doesn’t plan on doing anything about the remote exchange thingie. IMHO, the regulator still has too many biased people who used to work for the incumbent operator. But if you feel left behind because of that, start a petition or something and you’ll raise some attention. You’ll have a better chance of waiting for some operator to get optic fiber around Alta de Lisboa than PT giving away the remote exchange wildcard.
Cheers
April 11, 2008 at 12:39 am
Hi Bruno,
Thanks for the advice.. for now I still have TvCabo or Zon as it’s now known. It works fairly well (again most of the time about 60% of advertised speed (18MBs)) though the bill is steep.
I’m not sure about MEO as it’s still very new technology and I’ve been burnt with this type of deal before (artelecom) one thing that should be passed as legislation is that very new technology should not have any loyalty scheme fixed to it.
Just last week some scruffy looking blokes and a green truck were putting Fibre optics in the ground in my street. No idea who they were working for though. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.
April 17, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Just wanted to say that I think it’s terrible how your area has been overlooked. I never could have imagined that a place so close to a large telecom district could have such weak internet options