Government pressures Anacom and operators on 5G auction

  • ECO News
  • 10 August 2021

In a response sent to ECO, the government toughened its tone to remind operators and Anacom that the deadlines for 5G "remain in place", despite the delay in the process.

The 5G auction has been going on for 145 days and will not stop for the holidays. But, despite the Portuguese Regulatory Authority for communications (Anacom) having changed the regulations to speed up the sale, the process continues with no end in sight, pushing beyond all the time targets and expectations that had been outlined at the beginning of the year.

Faced with this deadlock, the government’s tone is changing. In March, the minister of infrastructure said he hoped that “bids will continue to increase”. But in July, the minister has already stated that he expects the process to end “soon”.

Now, in a response to questions sent by ECO, the Secretary of state for communications increases the pressure: there are targets to be met, which are fixed and will not change. And the government has the “expectation” that “all those involved in the auction” do not forget the need to comply with them – both the participants and Anacom.

An official source from Hugo Santos Mendes’ office recalls that there are “5G network development obligations” that “must be fulfilled” by whoever acquires the licences “within a maximum period of three years after its issuance”. “But the obligations of territorial coverage, that is, the supply of mobile broadband service with a minimum speed of 100 Mbps or 50 Mbps (depending on the spectrum they acquire) have their maximum deadline for compliance fixed (2025), with intermediate targets in 2023 and 2024.”

“It is the government’s expectation that all those involved in the auction (participants and regulator) remember the need to meet these targets, which remain in place regardless of the duration of the auction,” reiterates the same official source.

This is the government’s response to the fact that Portugal and Lithuania are the only two countries in the European Union not yet benefiting from fifth-generation mobile services. An indicator that may compromise the country’s competitiveness, and which this month was highlighted by a European Commission observatory.