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Setting Up Home Internet in Portugal

Researched and written with AI tools from official sources. How we make our guides

The steps to get fibre installed at home in Portugal, what to check in the contract, building wiring, and how to switch operator and keep your number.

The Portugal Brief 8 min read

Setting Up Home Internet in Portugal

Last verified: October 2026.

Who this is for

  • You have moved into a home and want fibre or another fixed internet line installed.
  • You already have a line and want to switch operator, keeping your landline number.
  • You live in an older apartment building and the operator says the wiring needs work.

Not for you if: you are still comparing internet, mobile, and TV, or bundles and lock-ins. Read Getting Internet, Mobile, and TV in Portugal first.

To get home internet in Portugal, you check coverage at your exact address, choose a plan, sign with your ID, tax number (NIF), proof of address, and bank details, and book a technician. Your contract must state how long installation will take and what you get if the operator is late. No national maximum is published. As one example, DIGI estimates 2 to 7 working days where its own fibre reaches. Switching operator later is handled by the new operator. Your service may be down for no more than one working day, and keeping your number is free.

Step 1: check coverage at your address

Fibre is available in most towns and cities, but it can stop at one street or cover only some houses. Check your exact address, including the door number, before you sign.

  • Use each operator's online coverage checker. You enter your postcode and address.
  • Use GEO.ANACOM, the free coverage map from ANACOM, the communications regulator. It shows fixed, mobile, and satellite networks by address.

If no fibre reaches you, ANACOM lists ADSL, mobile internet over 4G or 5G with a home router, and satellite as alternatives. Some operators sell a fixed 4G or 5G router service for homes without fibre.

The contract must say whether the service is available where you want it, or whether the operator must test first. If the service cannot be provided because there is no coverage, you can cancel and get back what you paid.

Step 2: gather what you need

ANACOM lists what operators usually ask for:

  • an identity document, such as your passport or residence card
  • your NIF. See Getting a NIF (Tax Number) in Portugal
  • proof of address, such as your rental contract, a promissory purchase contract, or a utility bill
  • bank details for payment (IBAN)

If you are switching, also have your current contract details and the portability code for your landline (see Switching operator, below).

Step 3: choose a plan and read the contract summary

Compare plans on COM.escolha, ANACOM's free comparison tool, then check the operator's own page. As an example, DIGI's own fibre prices on 2 October 2026 were €7 a month for 500 Mbps and €10 a month for 1 Gbps, each with a three-month lock-in. Without the lock-in, installation costs €50. This is one operator's offer, not a recommendation.

Before you sign, the operator must give you a contract summary you can keep, such as an email. The contract only takes effect once you have received it and confirmed it. Check these points:

  • Speeds. For fixed internet, the summary must show the minimum speed, the speed normally available, and the maximum download and upload speed. The minimum is guaranteed except during a complete outage.
  • Installation. The activation and installation price, and the deadline for connecting you.
  • Price over time. The monthly price after any promotion ends, and any clause that raises prices with inflation.
  • Lock-in. How long it lasts, what benefit you get for it, and what leaving early would cost.
  • Equipment. Whether the router and TV box belong to the operator. If they do, you must return them when the contract ends.

The longest lock-in allowed is 24 months, and every operator must also offer plans without one. If you sign online or by phone, you can cancel within 14 days without a reason. If you asked for installation to start in that time, you pay for the service used.

Step 4: book and prepare for the installation

  1. Book the technician when you sign. Ask for the date in writing.
  2. If you rent, tell the landlord. In an apartment, check who manages the building (the condomínio).
  3. Be at home for the visit. The technician brings the fibre into your home and sets up the router.
  4. Test the connection before the technician leaves.
  5. Keep the contract summary and your first bill. The bill shows when any lock-in ends.

If installation is late for reasons that are not your fault, you can claim the compensation set in your contract.

Apartment buildings and older homes

The telecom wiring in the shared parts of a building belongs to all the owners together. The building management (administração do condomínio) looks after it.

  • Owners and the building management must give operators open, fair access to install, maintain, and repair the wiring. They can set how access works, such as booking a date or keeping a log of visits.
  • Newer buildings have a standard telecom installation called ITED. If an operator wants to bring fibre into a building without ITED, it must have the work designed and carried out by qualified ITED installers, with signed statements of responsibility.
  • You or the building management can ask the operator for the technical plan before work starts, and for the completion statement at the end.

If cables end up loose on stairs or the front of the building, the building management can ask the operators to tidy them. For how the condomínio makes decisions, see How a Condominium (Condomínio) Works in Portugal.

Switching operator

You deal only with the new operator. With your express consent, it runs the whole switch. Your old operator keeps providing the service on the same terms until the new one is active.

  1. Check your current contract. If you are still in a lock-in, your old operator can charge the early exit fee. Switching does not cancel that.
  2. Get your portability code. To keep a landline number (numbers starting with 2), you need the 12-digit portability validation code (código de validação da portabilidade, CVP). It is on your monthly bill and in your online customer area.
  3. Sign with the new operator. Give it your ID and the code. Agree the switch date.
  4. Expect a short gap. Your internet may be down for no more than one working day. A number port happens in a window of up to three hours, and the new operator must tell you the window 12 hours ahead.
  5. Check the old contract has ended. Once the switch succeeds, the old internet contract ends automatically, for every service in the bundle. ANACOM also warns that porting a number on its own ends only the phone service. If anything is still billed, cancel it in writing with the old operator.
  6. Return any equipment the old operator owns, as it tells you.

Porting is free; operators cannot charge you for it. If the port is late, the new operator owes you €3 per number for each full day. If you lose service after the agreed date because of the new operator, it owes €23 per number per day, up to €5,750. A missed technician visit earns €10. These amounts are credited automatically within 30 days.

Moving house

If you move and are still in a lock-in, ask your operator whether it can move the service. If it cannot give you the same or an equivalent service at the new address, at a similar price, you can cancel without any lock-in charge. Send the request in writing, by email if you like, at least 30 days ahead, with proof of your new address. You pay for the service during those 30 days.

To leave for other reasons, read Cancelling a Telecom Contract in Portugal.

Speed, faults, and outages

  • Test your speed with NET.mede, ANACOM's free speed test. Wi-Fi, distance from the router, and old computers all slow things down, so test with a cable too.
  • Slow service. If the gap between real and contracted speed is significant and repeated, and shown by an ANACOM-certified test, it counts as a breach of contract. Your contract must explain what you can do.
  • Outages. If the service is down for more than 24 hours in a billing period, through no fault of yours, you get a credit for that time on your next bill, without asking.
  • Long faults. If a fault you reported lasts more than 15 days, you can cancel without any charge.

Low income: the social internet tariff

If your household receives certain benefits, or earns €5,808 a year or less, you can get internet for €5 a month plus VAT. It includes at least 15 GB a month at 12 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up, with no TV or phone. Every operator offering home broadband must provide it where it has a network. Ask for the tarifa social de Internet with your name, NIF, and tax address. ANACOM checks your eligibility, and the operator must activate it within 10 days of confirmation. See Getting a SIM Card and Mobile Plan in Portugal for the full list of who qualifies.

If something goes wrong

  1. Complain to the operator in writing, and keep a copy.
  2. Use the electronic complaints book (Livro de Reclamações) at livroreclamacoes.pt.
  3. Call ANACOM's free consumer line on 800 206 665, every day from 09:00 to 13:00.

For electricity, gas, and water at the same address, see Setting Up Utilities in Portugal.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Prices and rules change; check the official source and the operator's own page before you act.

Sources

This guide is written from official sources and, where relevant, organisations' own websites.

Last verified October 2026. Rules and fees change; check the official source before acting.

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