The COVID-19 pandemic caught us all by surprise. At a time when the world was turned upside down, we understood from the very first moment the crucial role that dstelecom played in society.
Social Responsibility
The COVID-19 pandemic caught us all by surprise. At a time when the world was turned upside down, we understood from the very first moment the crucial role that dstelecom played in society.
Telecommunications could not stop. Families and friends needed to stay connected after replacing hugs with video calls. Healthcare, work, and education had to continue—at a distance.
From the outset, we reinforced our mission to reduce regional asymmetries by connecting communities through the digital world. More than 300 direct and indirect employees were on the ground, in the midst of the pandemic, ensuring that telecommunications services reached people. It was imperative to help using what we do best: creating connections.
One example of this commitment was the solidarity project “Connecting Generations.” Aware that the elderly population represents a high-risk group, we launched this initiative to connect care homes across Portugal through fiber-optic infrastructure.
At the same time, we closely followed the creation of the “Estou” project, whose goal was to reduce social isolation among patients hospitalized in the Portuguese National Health Service. This initiative provided tablets equipped with dedicated software that allowed video calls in a simple and intuitive way.
That same year, we became closely acquainted with several inspiring stories: grandmother Lucinda, who now connects with her grandchildren living in Canada via video calls; a British couple who, after traveling the world, chose to settle in Alto Minho to work remotely; and a teacher who fulfilled her dream of opening her own business in the middle of nature, trading city life for the countryside. All of this thanks to the utility of the 21st century. All of this thanks to dstelecom’s multi-operator fiber-optic infrastructure.
Ambition
We closed 2020 with approximately 470,000 homes covered by our fiber-optic network—an increase of 70,000 homes compared to 2019.
We entered seven new municipalities and reinforced investment in twenty others, with the goal of reaching more than 95% of the population in the municipalities covered by our network. A clear example is Paredes de Coura, where coverage reached 98%, totaling around 6,400 homes. With pride, in December 2020, we recorded 151,000 families connected to the world through our fiber-optic network.
None of this would have been possible without the people who are part of this team. We ended 2020 with 177 employees at dstelecom—a 50% increase compared to 2019.
Ambition is part of our nature. We refuse to stand still and always aim to go further. And 2020 was no exception. Once again, we faced challenges and turned them into opportunities. We moved from “poetry to mathematics” and began developing a sales platform designed to digitally promote multi-operator telecommunications services to end customers living in the municipalities covered by our fiber-optic network.
We want to continue challenging the status quo of our business. We remain focused on the future, maintaining our ambition to replicate our multi-operator business model in the mobile network and to operate the new submarine cable infrastructure.
Sustainability
At dstelecom, we are committed to forging an increasingly sustainable path. Reducing our ecological footprint and taking responsibility for environmental preservation are top priorities.
In terms of energy, for example, we invested in solar panels for our telecommunications facilities in 36 municipalities, resulting in a reduction of approximately 20% in energy consumption. With a total installed capacity of 215 kWp, these 36 facilities will prevent around 105 tons of CO₂ emissions per year, equivalent to the carbon capture of 2,700 trees.
Innovation
2020 was also the year that marked the launch of two research projects under the MIT Portugal Program, with dstelecom’s involvement.
K2D – Knowledge and Data from the Deep to Space addresses the challenge of ensuring the sustainable evolution of the Earth by monitoring terrestrial systems and anticipating critical failures. This project, which we plan to develop over the next three years in partnership with entities from the National Scientific and Technological System and MIT, aims to create a fully disruptive, global-scale monitoring system for the oceans—from the deep sea to the surface—using remote sensing and satellite data to provide a holistic understanding of Earth’s global systems.
The Aeros Constellation project, in turn, aims to develop a nanosatellite platform as a precursor to a future constellation designed to explore, monitor, and enhance the value of oceans and space in a sustainable way, thereby leveraging scientific and economic synergies.
