There is an active public debate in the country focusing on the liberalisation and privatisation of the Portuguese telecoms sector. Telecoms services protected by the current legal monopolies are developing, although Portugal is one of the more expensive countries in the OECD in terms of telecoms tariffs. The telephone density in the country doubled in the years from 1988 to 1994, to reach 35 lines per 100 inhabitants. During the same period, the number of digital lines rose from 5% to almost 60%. However, it still takes on average eight weeks to wait for the installation of a new line.
The EU has granted Portugal the right to delay full liberalisation of telecoms until 2003. However, some areas are already liberalised. The markets for GSM mobile telephony and paging are currently growing rapidly. A third operator is expected to be start in 1998.
In other respects, the key technological framework for the development of teleworking is perhaps still to be fully developed. Portugal currently has four Internet providers (one servicing only the academic community) and the Internet is only starting to be available to the general public. A recent estimate suggests about 20,000-30,000 Internet users, mostly in Lisbon and Oporto. SMEs play an important role in the Portuguese economy, and in general have a relatively low level of computer literacy.
There is some discussion of use of telework as a way of working. As in many other countries the first trials of teleworking date from the seventies. These trials were mainly of programmers working on main-frames that were working remotely from their customers machines enabling them to support several customers at one site. The major hardware suppliers at that date were the pioneer companies to embrace some kind of teleworking.
| Razão Final is a strategic management consultancy company founded in 1994 and working mainly in Portugal, Spain, Brazil and USA. Teleworking made it possible to compete with the main players in the field. Team work on-line, with a relatively small staff and little overhead made it possible to support customers from three continents, and avoid time wasting travel. The company has used teleworking since its inception and today involves people working remotely from almost all continents. Starting with the small budget it had available, it would not have been possible in any other way. Today, the company considers itself "a small big company" because it has access to markets in the same way a big company has, but without the overhead, whilst retaining the flexibility of a small enterprise. |
At the end of the 1980s several people working in the IT field start using teleworking as a way of life to enable them to support their customers. Journalists were probably the next example when they started using telework as a way to avoid unnecessary travel to their offices. However, all these experiences were not officially recognised as a special way of working. Only in the last two years has the real discussion about teleworking started to be an issue and, today, is a hot topic involving a broad spectrum of society. Call centres supporting clients of banks and insurance companies operate on a 24 hour-basis using teleworkers. There is also a growing awareness and interest from SMEs and larger companies of electronic trade and tele-cooperation. This has been largely fostered by foreign investment (VW, Ford, Siemens) and the needs of such companies.
Today it is clear that the number of teleworkers is growing, particularly in small business enterprises, which is an extremely important sector in the Portuguese economy. This is mainly due to the emergence of the Internet, although not yet fully developed, yet. A recent estimate suggests about 20,000-30,000 Internet users, mostly in Lisbon and Oporto. Since the management style in many Portuguese organisations is based on Taylor's view of the organisation of work processes, there is still much reluctance to the introduction of more flexible working practices.
The debate about telework is, perhaps, less developed in Portugal than in some other EU member states. The first report on telework in Portugal was only published in 1996, with the support of Portugal Telecom, and covered mainly telework by independent professionals. However, the European Assembly on Telework and New Ways of Working will take place in Portugal in September 1998. A Portuguese Telework Association is being established.
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