Portugal's delayed 5G auction wraps up, raising 566 million euros
27/10/2021 19:20
LISBON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Portugal's national regulator
ANACOM said on Wednesday the main bidding phase of the country's
long-awaited 5G auction has come to an end 200 days after it was
launched, generating around 566 million euros ($657.1 million).
Delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the auction of several
spectrum lots was launched by ANACOM in January this year,
despite legal challenges from major players who say the rules
unfairly favoured new entrants. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2I52D2 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2H63QD
The regulator allowed operators to raise their bids by just
1% above rival offers, creating a drawn-out process of
incremental increases. Recognising a "very slow evolution",
ANACOM changed the rule to require a minimum increase of 3% to
speed up the process.
ANACOM recently came under fire from Prime Minister Antonio
Costa himself, who said the regulator had caused a "huge delay"
to Portugal's 5G progress. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2RI168
Portugal and Lithuania are the only two EU countries that
have not yet embarked on a commercial rollout of 5G technology.
"The main bidding phase of the 5G auction... ended today
after 1,727 rounds," ANACOM said in a statement, adding the
auction would now continue to the next phase to allocate usage
rights to operators.
A "prior hearing of candidates and bidders" is set to take
place before a final decision is made by ANACOM's board of
directors, the regulator said.
Specific frequencies were allocated to six bidders,
including Portuguese telecoms firms NOS and MEO, which together
serve nearly all of Portugal's mobile customers.
"Thanks to the spectrum we acquired, we will guarantee the
best 5G network, which will allow us to accelerate Portugal's
transition to a more digital country," said NOS' CEO Miguel
Almeida.
($1 = 0.8613 euros)
(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by Jan Harvey)
((catarina.demony@thomsonreuters.com; +351 915 616 444
(Twitter: @CatarinaDemony);))