Anacom presents 5G auction regulations

The Portuguese telecoms regulator Anacom is to announce on Thursday the regulations that will govern the auction for 5G technology in Portugal.

The auction will be a decisive step in the rollout of 5G fifth generation mobile networks in the country says ECO online news.
Up until now, only the regulations governing the project itself, which were presented at the start of the year, are known.
The public announcement, which will be done via a press conference, comes three days after the deadline given by Anacom itself for submissions of telecoms companies which intend to bid at the auction.
The three large national players, Meo, Nos and Vodafone will be most affected by the regulations which will dictate the charges for frequencies in the competition, the obligations for coverage by the bidders, and other variables.
The regulations will also determine the conditions that so-called ‘new entrants’ will be subjected to, meaning a new operator using the auction to launch itself in the Portuguese market.
If these companies go ahead under the present terms of the known regulations for the project, the licenses could set back operators at least €238 million.
The three main players in the Portuguese market, have put pressure on the regulator to make fundamental changes to the final regulations that will govern the auction which reflect and impact and uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
And the Government seems to agree with them. On 19 October, the new Deputy Secretary of State for Communications, Hugo Santos Mendes said at an Anacom event that the 5G auction should take into account the impact from the crisis.
The Covid-19 pandemic had forced the 5G auction to be postponed in several European countries including Portugal and Spain.
The auction will cover bands 700 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, and 3.6 GHz.
Portugal’s telecommunications sector generated profits at around €5Bn in 2019 according the same regulator which analysed the telecoms sector in the Portuguese economy between 2015 and 2019.
Last year, electronic communications represented the lion’s share of income in the communications sector, yet the postal service enjoyed the highest amount of investment.
The data was published in the Anacom study ‘The Communications Market in the National Economy – 2015-2019’ on Monday.
In fact, receipts for the sector overall were up 0.94% on 2018, putting the brakes on what had been downward trend since 2015, with the exception of 2016 in which the sector actually grew in terms of revenues.