5G: 60 networks will be active in Europe this year and “Portugal will not be one of them”
Alexandre Fonseca, president of Altice Portugal, states that reality shows that Portugal "is lagging" in terms of 5G.
The president of Altice Portugal said this Tuesday that, even this year, 60 5G networks will be active in Europe and “Portugal will not be one of them”, which shows that the country “is getting behind”.
Alexandre Fonseca spoke to Lusa Agency at the end of his participation in the Total Telecom Congress, in the debate panel “Global telecom reimagined: a new telco for a new economy”, which takes place in London, where he said that “unfortunately Portugal is late” in what concerns 5G (fifth mobile generation).
The manager pointed out to see “with concern” Portugal’s position in this matter, pointing out that “six, seven years ago, when Portugal spoken about in these events” as Total Telecom, “Portugal has been viewed as an example, namely in the mobile network”.
“Today we saw here Portugal as an example in the fibre optic component”, however, at the opening, “we saw that this year there would still be around 60 active 5G networks in Europe”, he pointed out.
“And Portugal won’t be one of them for sure,” he regretted.
Therefore, “it is with concern that we see, in fact, with 5G, Portugal is lagging other countries where mobile networks have a level of maturity and even a much lower performance”.
For this situation, “our regulator has a clear responsibility”, he concluded.
The transformation that 5G will bring, both to operators and the whole business environment, was one topic addressed in the panel discussion.
