Portugal among the small group of European countries with no 5G yet

  • ECO News
  • 26 January 2021

Only Cyprus, Lithuania, Malta and Portugal had not yet launched 5G services, says the report of the European 5G Observatory.

Portugal is one of the few countries in the European Union (EU) that does not yet have commercial 5G services, concludes a report published last week by the European Commission, cited by Público. Countries like Cyprus, Lithuania and Malta are in the same position.

5G is now available in 23 EU countries. “5G keeps progressing well in Europe, and the process has significantly accelerated during the past year,” the European 5G Observatory report says, although many Member States have postponed their 5G auctions because of the pandemic – as in Portugal – most of them have already completed these auctions.

However, there are still small countries that do not yet have this service. “Only Cyprus, Lithuania, Malta and Portugal have not launched 5G services in the EU,” the report said, adding that this year multi-band auctions are planned in several Member States, with many of them auctioning rights to use frequencies in the 26 GHz band, something that in Portugal is not expected to happen until 2023.