Portugal changes regulation to try to boost the 5G auction

  • ECO News
  • 13 August 2021

Anacom will promote a second amendment to the 5G auction regulation, in order to hasten the end of the process.

The Portuguese Regulatory Authority for Communications (Anacom) will start a second process to amend the 5G auction regulation, to put an end to the sale of frequencies once and for all. The aim is to “inhibit” the use of the lower 1% and 3% increments, the regulator announced.

Next Monday should mark the 150th day of bidding for the main phase and Portugal is at risk of being the last European Union (EU) country to launch 5G. Alongside the Portuguese, only the Lithuanians do not have the technology yet.

On June 30, new rules for the 5G auction came into force, introduced by Anacom in an attempt to speed up the process by making it possible to hold 12 daily bidding rounds instead of seven. The change was strongly contested by Meo, Nos and Vodafone.

The process did not progress as expected. “Anacom had hoped that the increase in the number of rounds would be enough to prevent the auction from being excessively prolonged, but this did not happen. In fact, since implementing this measure, over 300 rounds have already taken place and, although the rules in force allow bidders to speed up the auction if they wish, its pace of progress has remained very slow,” Anacom explained in a statement.

Anacom had already threatened that if the number of rounds did not allow the auction to be completed more quickly, it would move towards the inhibition of 1% and 3% bids. This is the step it has now taken. In the note released this Thursday, the entity led by João Cadete de Matos signals that “the recurrent use of lower percentage increments continues to predominate.”

Therefore, “Anacom has decided to start the procedure to amend the 5G Auction Regulation and other relevant bands, in order to inhibit the use of the lowest value increments that bidders can choose, 1% and 3%, to speed up the pace of the auction”. Operators now have five working days to send inputs and suggestions to the regulator, followed by a public consultation of another five working days.

Anacom considers that “the implementation of 5G is assumed as an absolutely urgent imperative both within the EU and at national level”. For the entity, making the spectrum available “as soon as possible” is necessary to solve “coverage deficiencies” and to “promote economic and social development”. The amendment is, therefore “circumscribed” and aims to provide the final impetus towards the end of this process.