Altice cuts institutional relationship with regulator

Altice Portugal, the owner of cable operator Meo, announced on Wednesday that it has decided to suspend “any institutional relationship” with the National Communications Authority (Anacom), the sector regulator.

“In the current context, in which the entire national economy and its agents have discovered and recognised how badly this regulator has done for Portugal, based on the public position of analysts and international investment banks, we feel completely legitimate to suspend, from now on, any institutional relationship with ANACOM, which is not what the law requires”, the company said in a statement.

At issue, according to Altice, is the regulator’s recent communication, which indicates that telecommunications prices in Portugal compare unfavourably with prices in the rest of Europe.

On Tuesday, Anacom reported that telecommunications prices in Portugal rose by 6.5% between the end of 2009 and October 2020 while in the European Union (EU) they fell by 11%, citing Eurostat data.

“The difference narrowed with the entry into force on 15 May 2019 of new European rules regulating prices for intra-EU communications,” the regulator said in a statement.

Data collected by Anacom show that only two countries experienced higher price growth than Portugal in the period under review – Slovenia and Romania.