Nos wants 5G auction annulled

The Portuguese telecoms operator Nos still has hopes that a controversial 5G auction held last year could be overturned by courts.

The opinion was given in a press conference held on Friday, by a Nos company director, Filipa Santos Carvalho.
Despite the 5th generation mobile technology already having been launched, the company thinks that since they can’t use the excuse that the 5G rollout would have been delayed if the auction had been stopped or overturned, the courts and the European Commission have leeway to deal with cases underway in a different manner.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t successful with injunctions” said the director, adding that the courts had not wanted the 5G rollout to be delayed.
“Now they can’t use the excuse (that they had used) that it would have delayed the 5G process. The illegality and unconstitutionality that this case involves will be known”, she said, adding that taking into account the two cases filed with the European Commission, one for “violation of European rules” and the other related to “State support”, namely via Anacom which they say helped new players in the market.
When asked what outcome she expected from the court cases, Filipa Santos Carvalho said that it “depended on the decisions and the way in which the court and the Commission looked at the cases”.
“If national roaming is considered legal, then the result would be null. However, if the regulations are deemed illegal, the auction may have to be repeated”, she said, adding that Nos had the conviction that a fresh auction would “take place quickly”.
The auction now being contested through the courts began in December 2020 and was concluded in the last quarter of 2021.