Lisbon, Portugal - Portugal has made major progress in high-speed fiber connectivity, but a new nationwide survey conducted by Netsonda on behalf of DE-CIX, the world’s leading Internet Exchange operator, suggests that the next challenge for the country’s Internet experience is not simply more speed. It is stability.
According to the results from 600 Portuguese Internet users, 81% of respondents believe that higher Internet speed improves the overall quality of their online experience. Yet the same research shows that many users continue to face lag, freezes, buffering and short connection drops even when using high-speed fiber connections.
Nearly one in five respondents (22%) experience Internet delays on a weekly basis or more often. Among users with high-speed Internet plans of 500 Mbps or more, almost one in four experience interruptions such as freezing, lag or dropouts at least once a week.
In the previous seven days before the survey was undertaken, 51% of respondents had experienced pages or apps taking too long to load, while 46% had experienced short drops in connectivity. More than one third, 36%, had experienced issues streaming videos, and 33% reported video or audio freezing during personal, work, or school calls.
“Portugal has largely solved the speed challenge,” said Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DE-CIX. “The next challenge is the quality of experience. In the age of Artificial Intelligence, consumers increasingly expect digital services to respond instantly and reliably, whether they are participating in a video meeting, making an online payment, streaming content, or accessing cloud applications. In those moments, stability matters more than raw bandwidth.”
Stability beats speed
When asked what they expect from upgrading to a high-speed fiber package, respondents ranked a more stable connection first, at 53%, followed closely by better performance when multiple devices are connected, at 51%. Faster downloads came only third, at 42%. The findings also reveal a growing gap between what consumers are sold and what they actually experience online. Only 25% of respondents say their Internet quality fully matches what they pay for.
The research also challenges the assumption that upgrading to a faster broadband package automatically solves connectivity problems. While 66% of users say upgrading to a higher-speed fiber package completely or partially eliminated issues such as hiccups, freezes, lag or micro-outages, 13% say problems still occur or that they saw no improvement at all.
When asked who they blame for the problems faced, 39% point to Internet Service Providers and 28% to general Internet congestion. Therefore, it is not surprising that almost half (45%) of respondents expressed surprise upon learning that many of the problems with delays depend not only on speed but also on how data travels through Internet infrastructure before reaching their homes.
For years, Internet performance has been discussed primarily in terms of speed,” Ivanov added. “But consumers increasingly judge their connection based on whether services work smoothly, consistently and without interruption. As digital experiences become more real-time, factors such as latency, routing efficiency, and network interconnection become increasingly important to overall Internet quality.”
