Research & Development, together with the partnerships established with national and international
entities associated with science and knowledge, are fundamental pillars for PT in its re-creation of
economic, social and environmental conditions capable of ensuring, day after day, a balanced future. In 2010, PT contributed to facing proactively the current social and economic situation by leveraging its competitiveness levels in the offer of products and services to the market, demonstrating an increased efficiency and sustainability in its process of implementation, distribution and use.
Taking into consideration the generalised access of the population to the information and communication technologies, several projects have been launched in order to extend high-speed internet access, improve rapidity and quality of service to customers and make available an each time more extensive set of services that responds to the expectations of each citizen and of the environment. In this context, it is worth highlighting the kick-off, pioneer worldwide, of the fully ecological SIM Card, entirely made of recyclable, bio-degradable paper.
This year, PT was once again a reference worldwide in terms of Research & Development (R&D). Its R&D investment in 2010 topped Euro 200 million, in line with the rank in terms of value of the previous year.
The R&D model used at PT aims to be innovative and to mobilize the entire organisation. Apart from the structure units dedicated to Research & Development and the areas that implement projects, the
genesis of this new model motivates and includes the initiative and participation of all employees:
The OPEN Program, launched in 2009 to institute systematic practices and a culture oriented towards applied research and development, was consolidated in 2010, thus proving the recognition of its merits.
Besides contributing to technological innovation of products and services, the program started to
leverage other R&D areas, enabling both to identify and implement new ways to work, study and interact with customers, and to aggregate new functionalities ad increased environmental sustainability in its market offering.
The management of the R&D initiatives is done according to the respective timeframe:
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Incremental Innovation – short term measures for continuous improvement;
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Planned Innovation – medium term developments in the offer of products and services;
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Exploratory Innovation – analysis of the main technological, eco-efficient and behaviour
trends that define long term sector evolution.
Partnerships
The establishment of strategic partnerships with recognised international companies and institutions is fundamental in generating an extended and dynamic R&D eco-system. The partnerships established have different natures:
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Technological partnerships;
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Strategic partnerships;
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Partnerships with Universities;
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Partnerships with research institutes.
Technological Partnerships
In order to customers’ access to next generation services supported on a fibre optic network, PT
maintained its agreements with top-class international suppliers such as Corning, Cisco and Huawei as well as equipment manufacturers such as Samsung, LG ad ZTE to develop tailored solutions for the
Portuguese market.
Strategic Partnerships
PT establishes strategic partnerships with other telecommunications operators to share best practices and to collaborate in innovative projects. It established for such purpose a collaboration agreement in 2010 with Singtel, leading operator in Singapore, in order to share operational and commercial practices in pay-TV services supported on fibre optic and IPTV technology, and to develop innovative applications for high-speed fixed and mobile networks.
Partnerships with International Universities
PT works in partnership with several Universities to develop projects of exploratory nature. In 2010, in the scope of the Carnegie-Mellon program, three researched projects in partnership with PT were kicked off:
Additionally, PT collaborated in the guidance of several master’s theses from his employees – namely in the development of a low-cost tool prototype for analysis of social networks for telecommunications operators, developed by a group of MSE (Master of Software Engineering) students – and promoted advanced training and talent development for other thirteen employees, having supported their Professional Master and PhD degrees.
Partnerships with National Universities
At national level, PT has projects underway in the main Universities: Aveiro, Porto, Coimbra, Minho, Trásos-os-Montes & Alto Douro, Beira Interior, and in Lisbon, at the Engineering (IST) and Science Faculties. In this domain, the following initiatives stand out:
Partnerships with Research Institutes
PT also has protocols established with different research institutions such as INESC (Instituto de
Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores) and IT (Instituto de Telecomunicações):
Participation in Workgroups
PT kept an active participation in several national and international workgroups as a way of sharing
knowledge and collecting best practices in different areas of activity:
