Portugal’s 5G auction nets €566M

The Portuguese government will potentially net over €500 million from the controversial 5G auction which ended last week.

For nine months the acting parties in what became a sector soap opera of accusations, criticisms and insults fought it out with operators calling for the resignation of the supervising board of telecoms watchdog Anacom which in turn accused the big companies Nos, Altice and Vodafone of deliberately dragging out the auction.
Even the Government intervened when Prime Minister António Costa accused ANACOM in parliament of putting at risk the technological and digital transformation Portugal needed to modernise its economy.
After 9 months and 1,727 rounds in which six companies acquired the 5G spectrum, the auction finally ended.
The six companies are: MEO, NOS, Vodafone, Dense Air, Dixarobil and NOWO which bought bands in various frequencies put up for sale in the auction.
The final amount netted from the auction is more than double than had been estimated as the reserve at the start of the auction.
The €566.8 million the State will earn from the auction is way above the amounts netted for the 3G and 4G licenses and more than double the amount set by Anacom as the estimate of €237 million.
Despite the main first phase of the bidding having ended, the other part of the auction to do with the distribution of usage rights continues. This is a process that includes the prior hearing of candidates and licensees by the board of ANACOM.
According to ANACOM, NOS is the company that most invested in the auction with a total of €165,09 million followed by Vodafone with €133.3 million and MEO with €125.2 million.