Portuguese market oligopolistic

As the dust settles on what has been the longest drawn out and bitterest 5G auction in Europe, the president of the Portuguese telecoms sector’s watchdog ANACOM, João Cadete de Matos, says Portugal’s oligopolistic market has accountability and competition issues.

In an interview with Jornal Económico, the ANACOM president says that Portugal’s telecoms market is an oligopoly run by three big companies. “This market has competition and accountability problems” which will not be overcome by “leaving things to market forces.”
Regarding the 5G auction which ended at the end of October, Cadete de Matos said that ANACOM had clearly met the objectives for the auction and stressed the historic step taken in terms of the conditions created that will contribute in future to “strengthen competition in the telecommunications sector in Portugal”.
He said that the auction had led to the presence of new retailers in the sector from the original big three: Altice (Meo), Vodafone and NOS, to include Nowo and DixiRobil from the Digi Group. In the wholesale market in Portugal thee was the addition of Dense Air.