There’s already a new date for the 5G auction. It starts in October

Anacom has already revealed the new schedule for the 5G launch process in Portugal. The regulator plans to approve the frequency auction regulation in September, start the auction in October, and end it in December. The final allocation of the rights to use the frequencies should take place next year, in January or February 2021.

The new 5G calendar in Portugal is announced after the process has been suspended because of the pandemic. Initially, the auction was scheduled to start in April, which means that Covid-19 will have delayed the process by about six months.

It was not until last Friday that the public consultation on the auction regulations was concluded. “It received around 500 contributions,” Anacom reveals this Thursday in a communiqué setting out the new timetable for the process. “Government bodies, the two regional governments, regulators, public institutions, local authorities, providers of electronic communications services, manufacturers and the general public took part in the public consultation”, stresses the entity chaired by João Cadete de Matos.

The frequency auction will serve to allocate the necessary spectrum to operators and other interested parties for the provision of fifth-generation electronic communications services. This concerns the 700 MHz, 900 MHz, 1 800 MHz, 2.1 GHz, 2.6 GHz and 3.6 GHz bands. Under the draft regulation, the auction should yield at least 238 million euros to the State, a figure that is higher than what the operators will pay. The difference in expectations is around 50 million.

As for the 700 MHz band, currently occupied by Digital Terrestrial Television, Meo, responsible for the service, intends to resume the migration on 3 August in Palmela. There are still 180 transmitters to be changed, in a process that is expected to be concluded on 12 December.