How to choose a mobile and broadband provider in Portugal: SIM card, internet, home bundle
Portugal has four mobile networks and a dozen brands that run on them. For the same internet over the same cable in the same building, people pay €15 and €45 alike — the difference is not quality but which brand they went to and what they signed. The main trap here is not the price but fidelização: a contract that commits you to stay for 24 months, and getting out of it costs money — people have paid as much as €700. Here, in order: who is on the market and how the brands differ; what they ask of someone without Portuguese documents; how the lock-in works and what it costs to leave; how to keep your number; what to do where there is no fibre; and where to go when the provider drags its feet.
Three networks, a fourth operator and budget brands
Four companies have their own mobile network in Portugal: MEO (the Altice group), NOS, Vodafone and DIGI. The first three have shared the market for many years; DIGI arrived last, is building its own fibre and is pushing prices down; the former fourth player, NOWO, has joined it — ANACOM's reports count them together as ‘DIGI/NOWO’.
Next comes the reason people overpay for years. Each of the three big companies has its own budget brand running on the very same network and the same cables: UZO belongs to MEO (its privacy policy sits right on MEO's website), WOO to NOS (its terms say ‘companies of the NOS SGPS group’), Amigo to Vodafone. On its own forum, Vodafone answers questions about Amigo like this: ‘amigo is an independent brand of the Vodafone group which uses the same network infrastructure but has a different, low-cost offer’. There is also Moche (MEO, for young people) and virtual operators such as Lycamobile — they have no network of their own at all and rent someone else's.
The difference between a brand and its parent company lies in price, support and the contract. Budget brands have no shops and no one to talk to on the phone: everything is done in the app, and that is their main drawback if something goes wrong in the app. On the other hand, they usually have no two-year lock-in. The network is exactly the same.
A caveat worth knowing in advance: a budget brand is not always available where its parent is. Vodafone writes plainly on the same forum that the Amigo offer is for now ‘limited to some areas of the country’. So you need to check coverage not for ‘is there Vodafone here’ but for ‘is there Amigo here’ — at your own address.
“They've got their own low-costers — amigo, woo and uzo. They use the big three's infrastructure, legally they even have the same NIFs, but they're 4 times cheaper”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkPortugal 🇵🇹 TravelAsk chat06.07.2026
“For fibre you can take anyone, even Digi; for mobile it's better to go with whoever has good coverage, and among the budget ones that's UZO (MEO), Amigo (Vodafone). WOO (NOS) has so-so coverage, though better than Digi”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal27.08.2026
“Uzo, SIM + gigabit at home = 20 euros. Meo offered it to us for 47 ;) The funny thing is MEO owns UZO and they use the same cables”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa02.09.2026
The first days: your own SIM, roaming and calls home
If you have arrived with a SIM from a European country, you can get by on it for the first few weeks: in the EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein the ‘Roam Like At Home’ rule applies — data and minutes come out of your home plan. But ANACOM, on its page for newcomers, warns about two things. First: the rule is designed for trips, not for moving, and the provider has a ‘fair use policy’ — if you live in Portugal for months, it is entitled to start charging extra. Second: a call from a foreign SIM to a Portuguese number is an international call, not a local one, and costs the international rate.
A non-EU SIM is expensive straight away; there are no concessions here.
The flip side of the same rule: a Portuguese SIM's roaming in Europe is not endless either. On unlimited plans, data abroad is still capped, and each brand has its own list of countries and its own limit. This is the first thing to check in the terms if you travel often.
One more small thing that helps at home: MEO and UZO support Wi-Fi calling (VoWiFi) — if there is no signal in the flat, voice and SMS go over your home internet.
“If you want a Portuguese one, then any operator (lyca/woo/nos/meo/digi), but look at how many GB you get roaming in Europe. Even on unlimited plans it's capped for Europe. And the list of countries will be spelled out in the terms too. Nobody seems to have unlimited roaming in Europe, some give more GB, some less. If you need it for 7-14 days and not that much internet, then a tourist eSIM (just google it, lots of options). But they'll be pricier and your phone needs to support eSIM.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatalgarve08.07.2025
“With Woo, 2 unlimited SIMs and home internet come to 21 euros for me. But roaming — just checked, 10, they've cut it.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatalgarve23.10.2025
“MEO supports wifi-calling for its SIM cards — then voice and texts go over the internet rather than the mobile network. Try connecting to wifi at home, then go into your phone's mobile network settings for MEO and turn on wi-fi calling.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto08.01.2026
A Portuguese SIM card: what they ask for and what it costs
Prepaid SIMs (pré-pago) are sold in shopping centres, supermarkets, operators' shops and online with delivery; all the major brands offer eSIM. When you register, budget brands ask for a NIF (tax number) and a bank card from which a fixed amount is taken every month.
For a contract plan and a home bundle, ANACOM's page for newcomers lists exactly four things: an identity document (a passport will do), a Portuguese NIF, proof of address (a tenancy agreement, a utility bill) and bank details — NIB or IBAN. You do not need a residence card for this: a passport is enough.
In practice, shop staff sometimes ask for a Portuguese cartão de cidadão simply because that is how the form on the website is set up. This is not a legal requirement; the conversations show that the same operator, in its own shop, sets everything up with a passport and NIF in five minutes.
You can get a SIM at the airport, but it is the most expensive way: what they sell there are short tourist packages. It is cheaper to get into town first.
And the main rule that the chats keep repeating to newcomers: if they ask you for documents and a signature, it is no longer prepaid but a contract, and almost certainly one with a two-year commitment. A prepaid SIM is set up without any signatures.
Worth knowing: a prepaid number does not live for ever. Under the plans' terms it is switched off roughly 90 days after the last top-up, and the number itself stays yours for about another 90 days; after that it goes to someone else. If you are leaving for a long time but need the number for bank texts, move it to the cheapest plan rather than abandoning it.
“Woo/lycamobile. If any operator asks for documents and a signature, that's a contract. That's for two years. Don't get into that, 5-7 euros a month are decent plans at woo/lycamobile. But they're not at the airport. Woo is in shopping centres, lyca is delivery only (or from the Indian shops, but the plans there are bad) Shame there's no eSIM, it would be easier. So at the airport just take Vodafone for one month so you can at least get where you're going. It's very expensive.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkPortugal 🇵🇹 TravelAsk chat07.07.2026
“I did ask about DIGI, by the way. The day before yesterday I tried to sign up online — they asked me to upload a cartão de cidadão. Yesterday they replied that a passport and NIF are enough, and if anything is unclear it's better to go to their shop. Today I made it to the shop — they did everything in five minutes. Sitting here waiting for the technician to call.”
Translated from Ukrainian; the original is at the linkukrporto03.09.2026
“Woo wants a NIF (tax number) to register. Without it you'll get around 10-15 GB of data or so, but everything will work. Lycamobile only wants a bank card, so don't forget to unlink it before you throw the SIM away, if you decide to ditch it.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa01.05.2026
“When you land, it's only Vodafone at the airport. 20 euros for two weeks or so, 30 or 40 for a month. Sooooo expensive. And no outgoing calls (at least that used to be the case on that plan). It's a physical SIM You can get Lycamobile 5 eur = 50 gb Woo 10 eur = unlimited Everyone has eSIM, so you can buy it in advance and switch it on when you arrive. Pay by card, unionpay won't work there. The main thing, no contracts, that's two years of bondage with a mythical benefit. If you don't give your name and NIF, then it's definitely no contract. Pre-pago / pre-paid plan. Use it and bin it.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkPortugal 🇵🇹 TravelAsk chat17.07.2025
“results of my SIM investigation: Prepaid numbers get deactivated 90 days after the last top-up, but the number is kept for another 90 days after that. So total, irreversible deactivation only happens after 180 days.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkru_Portugal_pt19.09.2023
Fidelização: the key word in the contract
Fidelização is the period during which you promise not to leave, and in return you get a lower price, free installation, a router or a TV box. You need to know this word by heart: it is behind every ‘I can't leave’ story in Portugal.
What the electronic communications law says (Lei n.º 16/2022, Article 131). The maximum is 24 months. The provider must have offers with no lock-in at all and must show how the price differs for 6, 12 and 24 months. It can impose a new lock-in (refidelização) only if it gives you something new in return, named and costed in the contract, and only with your express consent. A separate rule: if you have added another service to the contract or bought a phone in instalments, that does not in itself extend the lock-in — it can be extended only with your explicit consent (Article 114).
Next comes something almost nobody knows that settles half the questions: the lock-in end date and the amount you would have to pay to leave today must appear on your monthly bill. Not in a contract from two years ago, but on last month's bill. Open the bill and look — it takes a minute and spares you the ‘so how much will they charge me’ conversation.
And one more thing: it is up to the provider to prove that you agreed to the lock-in. No proof of consent — no right to charge for leaving early.
Plans without a lock-in cost more — that is normal and legal: the lock-in is the price of the discount. Work it out over the whole period: two years at €30 is €720, two years at €15 is €360.
“It also depends on which providers are in your building. And read the contract carefully, NOS and MEO often have a two-year fidelização, when you can't leave them without a penalty”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkPortugal 🇵🇹 TravelAsk chat04.03.2026
“From what I've seen, Meo has the best network in the country So it's worth switching to Uzo, you get the same thing, but cheaper and without a contract (two-year lock-in)”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa02.09.2026
“as long as everything goes to plan, nobody's complained about nos or vodafone in the chats) and apparently you can get connected without a two-year contract, but when I looked into it a year ago, the catch seemed to be that they slap on some insane price for installing the router (or the cost of the router itself) and you ‘voluntarily’ choose the two-year contract)”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa28.11.2025
What it costs to leave early
The important thing to understand here: there is an early termination fee, but it does not equal ‘all the remaining payments’, as you are often told on the phone.
For contracts signed from 14 November 2022, the law says the provider must charge the lower of two amounts:
— the value of the benefit you were given for the lock-in (named and costed in the contract), in proportion to the time remaining; — a share of the remaining monthly payments: 50% if you leave in the first year of the contract and 30% if in the second. With a new lock-in without a new installation, it is 30% in any case, and this rule was extended even to contracts signed earlier.
If the lock-in was there because of a phone bought cheaply and locked to the network, you will pay no more than the cost of unlocking it.
How it is worked out. A €30 bundle, a two-year contract, you leave in the eighth month. There are 16 payments left — €480; half of that is €240: that is the ceiling under the second point. Now the first: the contract states that you were given free installation worth €100 and a router worth €80 — of that €180, about €120 falls on the remaining period. You pay the lower amount, that is €120, not €240 and certainly not €480. If the provider names a higher figure, ask them to show how it was arrived at and which benefit exactly is written into the contract.
In the chats people quote much larger sums too — along with debt collectors and months of correspondence.
Hence the practical advice repeated most often in the conversations: don't break the contract — wait for the lock-in to end, and about a month and a half before it does, call and say you are leaving for another provider. That is exactly when they offer a 30–40% discount. Another version of the same trick is to ask to move within the same company to its budget brand: switching from MEO to UZO or from NOS to WOO goes through without an exit fee, because legally you remain with the same supplier.
“Yes. We just couldn't break up with them. Every new call to the line and every new employee gives different information. Going to the loja didn't help either, I got tired of fighting them, writing letters and calling. In the end I paid a penalty of about 700€. After that an SMS came saying they'd charged a fee of about 50 € on top. Because they'd given a deadline and a payment reference. I wrote a complaint about the staff and their fraudulent actions. It's a complicated story with us altogether. We switched to MEO.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa18.11.2024
“I had the same situation with Vodafone. The bundle didn't auto-renew. But they moved everything to the basic plan with crazy prices, Mobile internet was charged by the megabit!!!. Their contract says the contract can only be terminated after written confirmation. I had to pay about 100 euros for a week of use just to get away from them.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa10.10.2025
“if you're happy with Vodafone's service and your current contract with them is coming to an end — then it's easier to moan on the hotline that you're going to leave for digi — then they'll give you a 30-40 percent discount for the next period.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal22.08.2026
“Maybe someone will find this useful. Outcome: I put in a request to terminate my contract with MEO. About 2 weeks later they called and said they couldn't offer to halve the price (which is what I asked for) and offered to move me to UZO. I agreed — the switch went super smoothly (I couldn't even believe it). Result: the price went down from ~50 eur to 25 (internet; TV and 1 SIM). An important point: the operator said that moving within the same company can be done without waiting for the contract to end. Supposedly there's no penalty.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto12.04.2026
When you can leave for free
The electronic communications law (Articles 133, 135 and 137) lists the cases in which there is no early termination fee at all. They are worth knowing one by one — this is a rare case where Portuguese rules are on the side of the individual.
The provider has changed the terms of the contract. It must give at least a month's notice, in a form that leaves you with a record (a letter, a paper). After that you have 30 days to leave without paying a single euro. There is one important exception: if from the very start the contract contained a clause on an annual price review — by a fixed amount or in line with INE inflation — then a rise under that clause does not count as a change to the contract and does not give you the right to leave for free.
You are leaving the country. Emigration is a legal ground. You need a written notice 30 days in advance and proof: a certificate of residence in another country or an employment contract from there.
You have lost your job. Only a dismissal initiated by the employer and through no fault of your own, combined with a drop in monthly income of 20% or more. You need a certificate from the job centre or Segurança Social plus proof of the drop in income.
You have lost your ability to work — permanently or for more than 60 days, again with a 20% loss of income.
You have moved, and the provider cannot supply the service at the new address — neither the same one nor one equivalent in price and features. Notice 30 days in advance plus a document showing the new address.
The provider is not fulfilling the contract. If the service is effectively not there — the internet has been down for weeks, the speed is not what is written down — you are entitled to leave without a fee, and this applies to the whole bundle, not just to the broken service.
The person has died. The contract ends by itself, with no fees and no month's notice; you take the death certificate to the provider.
Separately, there is not termination but suspension (Article 137): in the event of losing your home, moving abroad, prison, long illness, caring for a relative, unemployment or sick leave, the contract can be frozen, and you do not have to pay during that time. If the pause lasts longer than 180 days, the contract can be considered terminated.
In all these cases the procedure is the same: a written request (email will do), 30 days in advance, with the documents attached. The provider is entitled to bill you for the notice month — and nothing more.
“You can keep the number. We changed this same Moche plan to an all-in MEO contract plan with home internet and 2 SIMs. I.e. at the MEO office they merged our 2 SIMs into one contract, changed the plan and now we pay by monthly bills. There's an app and an online account on the website. The contract is for 2 years. You can only break it early if you move to another country.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal10.01.2024
“NOS is blatantly breaching the terms of our contract, but refuses to terminate it without a penalty for early termination on our side. I'm trying to work out whether to agree to disconnection with the penalty and then take it up through the regulator — or to drag out the disconnection until they agree to close the contract without a penalty.”
Translated from Ukrainian; the original is at the linkukrporto19.05.2026
“Due to circumstances we have to leave Portugal for a year, and we took out a contract for 2 phone numbers (unlimited calls and internet even in the EU) and unlimited home internet with Vodafon for two years. The monthly cost is 60 euros. Maybe someone needs a contract from September for a year, rather than the standard 2 here, we'd be happy to transfer it. Because when we arrived ourselves we found that the minimum decent contracts are for 2 years, and that's not always convenient. We checked at the Vodafon office: when the contract is transferred the mandatory payments remain for a year, after that it can be terminated at any time.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkdigitalnomadportugal24.08.2026
How to cancel a contract so that it actually ends
Cancelling in Portugal is a quest of its own, and almost every story in the chats is about the same thing: the request is accepted, but the service carries on and the bills keep coming.
What the provider must do. The ways of cancelling cannot be more complicated than the ways of signing up: if you could sign up by phone, you can leave by phone. The request is made in writing to any of the contacts in the contract, in person in a shop, by phone (if the line verifies that it is you), in your online account or through the government platform cessacaodecontratos.pt — you log in there with ‘Chave Móvel Digital’ or your citizen card. The provider has no right to demand documents it already has.
Deadlines. It must confirm a correctly submitted request in writing within 5 working days and state the date when the contract actually ends. If something is missing from the request, it must tell you within 3 working days; you have 30 working days to fix it, otherwise you start again. You usually have to give 15–30 days' notice of leaving, and after the contract has been renewed automatically the provider may not demand more than a month's notice. It will bill you for that month — this is legal, and it is exactly why the ‘extra’ invoice arrives.
What to do in practice:
— submit the request in writing and keep the confirmation — it is your only proof; — to calls of ‘we'll offer you a discount’, reply that the decision has been made, and demand written confirmation of the cancellation with a date; — ask in advance what to return and where: the router and TV box are usually the provider's property, and you pay if you don't return them. You can't hand them in at just any shop, only at the points named in the letter; — after disconnection, check the next bill, and cancel the direct debit only once you are sure you owe nothing.
If everything has stalled, the cessacaodecontratos.pt platform was set up precisely for this (Portaria n.º 284/2022): the request goes to the provider bypassing the call centre.
“I've had their home internet for several years now and only that, the fidelização period ended long ago. I want to close my obligations, give them back the router, the TV box and part ways. I went to their office today fully confident that you can close the contract in person, but no, the actual employee said it's done exclusively by phone and that his colleagues would call me now and sort it all out. 15 minutes later one of their people really did call, asked for my nif, said ok and vanished.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal24.06.2026
“We cancelled recently, that phone call thing really is nuts. After the request, the sales guys will call a few more times and try to talk you out of it and push a discounted plan on you. After your persistent and irritated refusals, a paper letter arrives with confirmation and dates for when and where to hand in the router (yeah, you can't just take it to any nearby office. The letter has a list of literally 5 places for Lisbon, for example) In the end the whole thing drags on for a month+ If they owe you money for some reason, good luck winning it back.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal24.06.2026
“Easiest is through this site, but you need to register there and CMD. But within three days max the contract is cancelled. otherwise when dealing with Nós by phone and when trying to return the equipment at the office, they said the contract was cancelled in May and to wait for an SMS to hand in the equipment, and in the end in June they sent a bill again, even though since May I've had a different operator, their subsidiary Woo.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal25.06.2026
“That's the only option((.. And even then you'll have to go more than once. I recommend cancelling the contract with them altogether. That's done through a request in the app. Just bear in mind it takes more than a month: I put the request in at the beginning of November, but under their rules they set my cancellation date as 10.12.. I.e. I paid for the whole of November, though I barely used it (I moved to DIGI). And for 10 days of December (earlier they'd sent an invoice for the whole of December, I disputed it)..”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto30.12.2025
Home internet: first the address, then the plan
Home internet depends not on the town or even the street, but on the specific building and entrance. Fibre can be on one side of a street and not on the other. So the order is: first check what is available at your address at all, and only then choose a plan.
It is best to check in two places. On the provider's website (where you also enter the address with the door number) and on the GEO.ANACOM map — the official one, where you can see for any point on the map which networks reach it and at what speeds.
What the contract must say about speed. For fixed internet the law requires three figures: the minimum speed (it must never fall below this), the normally available speed and the maximum. For mobile — an estimate of the maximum. The contract must also say what you can demand if the actual speed consistently falls short of what is written down. Measure it with the official speed tester NET.mede: its result is what counts in a dispute, unlike a random speedtest.
About installation, it is worth knowing in advance: timescales in the chats range from ‘installed the same day’ to three months with three technicians, and the problem is more often the building than the brand — the distribution box, the condominium, no keys to the basement. If they drag their feet, what works is not a call to support but a written complaint: after one, the technician comes noticeably faster, and sometimes they write off a month for the delay.
How to get connected and what to ask the landlord before calling a technician is covered in the guide How to connect electricity, water and internet when you move in.
“go to [link] find your building on the map and look at the available operators. if there's DIGI — go with them. if not — my condolences)”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa03.04.2026
“I originally had woo for mobile, then I added home internet too. Overall I'm happy. Though it took 3 months to connect and three technicians came, but the problem was partly on the building's side and also on the provider's side. In the end they gave us the first month free, for all that delay.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa08.08.2026
“we use them. The service and the price are great! But!! I've been meaning to write about this here for ages, to share my bitter experience of their service. 😭😡 Suddenly our internet went, completely! We wrote, called support, used their website, walked over to their outlet in Alegro. We threatened, demanded, wrote that 3 people work online from home here!! In the end the technician came after 13 (!!!). Turned out the cable had been cut on the 4th floor 😱🤯. He fixed it for free, of course.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatsetubal22.11.2025
“With Vodafone it worked 😁 for a week they couldn't come and install the internet, after a complaint a technician came straight away.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal18.08.2026
Moving your number: free, with a CVP code, in one day
You do not lose your number when you change provider — it is a right, not a service. Charging for moving a number is prohibited.
How it works. You go not to the old provider but to the new one: it handles the whole process itself. You will need an identity document (for prepaid too) and the CVP — código de validação de portabilidade (number portability validation code), twelve digits that providers use to check that the number really is yours. Where to get it: on your bill, if you are on a contract; by SMS within the first 24 hours after activation, if you are on prepaid; in your online account; or simply ask the provider for it — including by SMS from the number you are moving.
Deadlines and compensation. The number is moved on a date agreed with you and no later than one working day after it. You will be without service for no more than three hours, and the new provider must tell you 12 hours in advance exactly when. If the deadline is missed — €3 per number for each full day of delay; if after the move the service does not work through the new provider's fault — €23 per number for each day (capped at €5,750 per request); if the technician did not turn up at the agreed time and the visit had to be rescheduled — €10. You do not have to ask for this money: they must credit it to your next bill themselves or pay it within 30 days.
They cannot refuse to move your number because of debts or an unfinished lock-in — the debt remains a debt, but they must release the number. A refusal is lawful only if the number cannot be moved in principle, a request is already in progress or the CVP does not match. A number that has been inactive for more than three months will not be moved either.
And now the main trap that leaves people paying two providers at once. Moving a number closes only the service linked to that number. If you have a bundle — internet, TV, two more SIMs — everything else keeps being billed, and often for more than before: the bundle price falls apart. The bundle has to be closed with a separate cancellation request.
A side effect, but a useful one: a request to move your number is the quickest way to get a discount. As soon as the old provider sees it, the calls with offers begin.
“Moving the number isn't a problem. The problem is making sure the old operator doesn't keep charging the monthly fee.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal12.02.2024
“I'm moving my SIMs from vodafone to digi right now. I went to vodafone, terminated the contract a week before it ended (penalty 0), I'm using the old plan for another week since the month is paid, and then they'll bill me for the SIMs for actual use, I ordered digi SIMs and gave the transfer code for them (for each number there are CVP transfer codes on the vodafone invoice). Then on the chosen date and time the vodafone SIM will stop working and the digi one will start.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto07.11.2025
“Moving your number is the simplest thing in Portugal and it reliably works. You go to the new provider and say — I want to join you, here's my number. They do the paperwork and give you the SIMs. A day later everything works.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto30.04.2025
“If you want to stay and get a discount — send a number transfer request somewhere, they immediately start calling, haggling, offering better terms.”
Translated from Ukrainian; the original is at the linkukrporto28.07.2025
Where there is no fibre
Fibre in Portugal has reached most towns, but not every house, and in the countryside there may be none at all. In that case there are three options.
The mobile network instead of a cable. The most common solution: an ordinary SIM with unlimited data put into a 5G router. You buy the router yourself; it is the only one-off expense, and by a calculation from the chats the cheapest one pays for itself in about seven months. The SIM is the same €5–10 a month. DIGI also has a ready-made service: ‘Net Fixa 5G’ for €5 a month — specifically for addresses its fibre has not reached yet (price from their website as of 3 September 2026). People report speeds from 60 to 500 Mbit — depending on the signal.
What to expect: the quality depends on what is behind the wall and which way the window faces; in the conversations people argue about whether the saving is worth it. One argument is ‘we've been living like this for a second year, two of us on video calls, and it's fine’; the other is ‘mobile internet isn't a particularly reliable thing, it's not worth saving 5–10 euros’. Both are right: it is enough for video calls and films, but for work where a dropped connection costs a lot it is risky. And bear in mind that on some plans the speed is cut after a certain volume: ‘unlimited’ on a phone and ‘unlimited’ in a router are not always the same thing — check this in the plan's terms.
ADSL over a phone line — an old copper technology, which ANACOM still lists among the three ways of providing fixed internet. Slow but stable, and available where there is nothing else.
Satellite. The most expensive and needs a dish installed: private installers do this, and MEO has satellite bundles in its general price list. It makes sense in an isolated house with neither fibre nor a decent mobile signal.
One thing deserves a separate mention: don't sign a two-year contract before you have checked the signal on the spot. In a new home, first get a SIM with unlimited data for a month, see how it works in the rooms and in the garage, and only then decide.
“We moved to Porto from Setúbal and couldn't get fibre from woo or Digi As a temporary solution we bought a router and stuck a woo SIM in it. And then some kind of Portuguese vibe happened. We've been living on mobile internet for a second year now.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto14.03.2026
“On 18 June I bought a woo SIM, got unlimited for 10 euros a month and plugged it into a zte 5g router, and since then we've been using it as the main source of internet in the flat. All good, 500 megabit download, 100 megabit upload. Haven't run into any restrictions so far. Sharing the internet from the woo SIM to other devices (hotspot on the iPhone) also works fine, no problems in about 2 years.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal28.06.2025
“See, I understand how fibre works, there are practically zero external factors, your network won't suddenly go down under load, there won't be speed drops. But mobile internet isn't a particularly reliable thing, it's not worth saving 5-10 euros.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto25.09.2025
“Well that's harsh, I don't know what the prices are there, can't even imagine: I've got Woo — gigabit plus a SIM with unlimited = 22 €, and that gives me internet plus an almost seamless backup in case of a power cut. And it takes at least seven months to pay off the price of the cheapest 5G router.”
Translated from Ukrainian; the original is at the linkukrporto07.05.2026
Bills, price rises and things you didn't order
Your telecoms bill is where extra charges turn up most often. What is worth checking every month.
The price has gone up. First open the contract and find the clause on the annual price update. If it is there and clearly worded — by so many cents or in line with INE inflation — the provider is entitled to raise the price even in the first months after signing, and you cannot leave for free because of it. If there is no such clause, or the rise is different from what it says, that is a change to the contract: a month's notice and 30 days to leave for free.
The promotion has ended. This is separate from a price rise: the discounted price was temporary, the period ran out and the bill went up to the full amount. Check which month the discount runs until before you sign.
Something extra has appeared on the bill. This happens by mistake and also after a call of ‘we'll add this for free for three months’. Mistakes are corrected, but only if you notice them: people have had €30 and €60 refunded after writing to support.
They sent SIMs you didn't ask for. These are activated not by your silence but by your consent — silence does not count as consent; but a bill may still arrive, and you will have to sort it out in writing.
How to pay. With the big providers — direct debit (débito direto), referência Multibanco, the app or a cash machine. The budget brands live on card direct debits. In 2025 people complained that DIGI bills could not be paid through Multibanco, only by bank transfer or in the app — if you don't have a Portuguese card, check this before signing up. What a payment reference is and how payments work here in general is explained in How banks work in Portugal.
“Anyone who uses MEO, I recommend checking your last bill. They added an extra 60 euros for some GPRS, after I asked support they said ‘ah, that was a billing glitch we had during the blackout’. If I hadn't noticed, they'd have taken it. I suspect I'm not the only one in Porto.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto23.05.2025
“Something interesting about vodafone, if anyone's taking out a new contract. The website shows discounts, for example 63 euros for 2 SIMs and internet. When we signed the contract we didn't pay attention to the annual cost of the plan — it came out at 97 euros a month. When the first bill for the services came, I wrote to their support something like ‘actually we didn't come for this plan, you tricked us blah blah’. They took 30 euros off the bill.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa06.01.2025
“need advice on what to do with. MEO: We had 1 contract uzo SIM. In June they called endlessly and tried to push 2 extra SIMs on us — we refused.. Then they sent these SIMs — I threw them.away. because I called support, they said no need to do anything with them, you don't use them, you don't pay. They sent texts and emails asking us to activate and confirm consent for each of the SIMs — all of it was ignored. For 2 months empty recibos came, and for Aug, September, October, November they came with charges. - I called every time, they said we have no debt.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkru_Portugal_pt08.12.2024
Where to complain and what it achieves
The complaints procedure is simple, and it is worth sticking to: if you skip a step, you lose time rather than gain it.
First — the provider itself, in writing, describing the problem with dates. Not a chat conversation but a letter you can produce.
Second — the complaints book. The online one at livroreclamacoes.pt carries more weight than the paper one: telecoms count as essential public services, and for such a complaint the provider must reply to you personally. It is the most effective tool of all: the conversations include stories of a whole bill being cancelled and of a technician arriving the next day. How to fill it in is covered in the guide Livro de Reclamações: how to complain in Portugal.
Third — arbitration. If the provider has not budged, the dispute is decided by a consumer dispute arbitration centre or a julgado de paz (justice of the peace court). It is quicker and cheaper than court, and a telecoms provider is obliged to take part in such arbitration, even if it doesn't want to.
What is important to understand about ANACOM: it will not resolve your dispute itself — it has no such powers, and says so plainly. But it does accept complaints, counts them and puts pressure on providers with the statistics, and its free line 800 206 665 (every day from 9:00 to 13:00) will explain what you are entitled to by law.
How much others complain — the regulator's own figures for the second quarter of 2026 (published on 2 September): 27,600 complaints about telecoms and post, 12% more than a year earlier; about electronic communications — 17,500. MEO — 6,500 complaints (37% of the total, up 54%), but per customer that is the lowest of all: 1.6 complaints per thousand. NOS — 5,700 (32%) and the worst figure among the big ones: 2 complaints per thousand. Vodafone — 4,300 (25%) and the only one whose complaints fell, by 16%. DIGI/NOWO — about a thousand (5%), but 2.2 per thousand customers, and that is a drop of as much as 53% in a year.
It is best to read these figures by the last column — complaints per thousand customers: the absolute numbers simply mirror the size of the company.
“I've had two similar stories with NOS, one with cancellation, the second one's ongoing now with poor service quality (the internet drops for a minute, sometimes for hours). The first was resolved fairly successfully through the livro de reclamações, I'm handling the second the same way straight away, without even trying to go to them in person. I'm collecting evidence in a little folder and writing a complaint every two weeks if they didn't answer the last one, or answered unsatisfactorily.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa11.07.2026
“As a result of the complaint NOS fully cancelled my fatura for June (a nota de crédito covered the full amount). They've already written three times by text and letter that everything has supposedly been fixed. A technician even came on the 26th, checked and reconnected the wires. That, admittedly, only helped partly, or maybe not at all, because the problem is clearly somewhere outside the flat and the building. The connection still drops several times a day. The funniest thing is that the biggest outages lately were on the 27th — the very next day after the technician's visit the internet was down for several hours in total.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal30.06.2026
“The official body that regulates telecom operators in Portugal is called ANACOM.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa12.12.2025
The social internet tariff — €5 a month
This option is never discussed in the Russian-speaking chats: the words ‘social tariff’ come up dozens of times there, and always about electricity and gas, never once about the internet. Yet it applies to many people. The Tarifa social de Internet (TSI, social internet tariff) was introduced by Decree-Law 66/2021 and Portaria 274-A/2021: internet for €5 a month plus VAT.
What it includes: at least 15 gigabytes a month and a speed of no less than 12 Mbit download and 2 Mbit upload — enough for email, government services, banking, studying and video calls. TV and phone are not included in the social tariff. For connection and equipment they can charge no more than €21.45 plus VAT, and this amount can be split over 6, 12 or 24 months.
Who is entitled: recipients of the rendimento social de inserção, unemployment benefit, abono de família (child benefit), the complemento solidário para idosos, the social old-age or disability pension; and also households with an annual income of up to €5,808 — plus 50% of that amount for each household member with no income of their own, including the applicant, but for no more than ten people. Separately — students from such a household who have gone to study in another municipality.
How to apply: give any internet provider your name, NIF and tax address — and that is all. They have no right to demand certificates from the tax office or Segurança Social: the provider passes the data to ANACOM itself, and ANACOM checks it with the authorities. Once confirmed, the service must be switched on within 10 days. There is one tariff per household. Old debts are not grounds for refusal, although they may ask for a deposit when the contract is signed.
If you were refused but meet the conditions, find out why from the tax office or Segurança Social (they are the ones who check) and apply again, attaching documents.
What it costs, according to community conversations
| unlimited mobile from a budget brand | €5–7 a month | source |
| 1 Gbit home fibre from a budget brand | €15 | source |
| bundle: gigabit at home plus a SIM | €20 | source |
| MEO bundle: fibre, two SIMs, TV box | €45 | source |
| Vodafone: home internet and four SIMs | €75 | source |
| leaving a two-year contract early | about €700 | source |
| a week on the basic plan after auto-renewal | about €100 | source |
| extra charge on a month's MEO bill | €60 | source |
| moving within the same company to its budget brand | from €50 to €25 | source |
What to bring
- Passport or residence card — by law a passport is enough; a Portuguese cartão de cidadão is not needed
- NIF — without it the budget brands will not register a plan
- Proof of address: a tenancy agreement or a utility bill — for a home bundle
- IBAN or a bank card for the monthly direct debit
- Your exact address with the door number — to check coverage, not just ‘for the street in general’
- The CVP code from your bill or an SMS — if you are moving your number
- Chave Móvel Digital — to cancel a contract through the government platform rather than the call centre
Where people most often trip up
- ‘Sign here’ means a contract with a 24-month lock-in, not buying a SIM: prepaid never involves signatures
- The lock-in end date and the exit fee must appear on your monthly bill — look there before any conversation
- Moving your number only closes the service with that number: the bundle keeps being billed until you cancel it separately
- An annual price rise under a clause in the contract is legal and does not let you leave for free; a rise outside the clause does, but only for 30 days
- The promotional price ends before the contract does: check which month it runs until
- The router and TV box belong to the provider; you pay if you don't return them, and not every shop takes them back
- A budget brand is not available everywhere its parent network is: check the brand, not the company
- A new lock-in must come with a named and costed benefit in return and your express consent — otherwise it cannot exist
- After cancelling, one more bill will arrive — for the notice month; that is legal, but a second such bill is not
- ‘Unlimited’ roaming in Europe always has a data cap and a list of countries