Anacom approved on Tuesday final report of the auction of frequencies for 5Gwhereupon Dense Air, Dixarobil, Meo, Nos, Nowo and Vodafone must pay for their frequency rights within ten business days.
“Companies now have 10 business days to deposit the final amount, and this deposit is issuing frequency certificates,” said the regulator, chaired by João Cadet de Matos.
Dense Air received four frequency lots (€ 5.765 million), eight lots (€ 67.3 million) for Dixarobil and 12 lots (€ 125 million) for Meo.
Nos received 15 lots (165 million), Nowo received seven (70 million) and Vodafone received 11 lots (133 million).
After the payment has been made, Anacom will issue bonds, and from that point on, the companies that are already prepared will be able to launch their first 5G commercial offerings – what is expected no later than the beginning of 2022.
To conclude this long process, which began in 2020, it is striking that the atmosphere between the companies and Anacom continues to be tense.
The auction ended on October 27, after 200 days, for a total of 560 million euros, of which 84 million relates to the stage reserved for new entrants, which ended on January 11 and which was contested by Nowo (date without mobile communication supported on its own network) and Dixarobil.
The main bidding phase, in which Dense Air (wholesaler), Nos, Meo and Vodafone participated in addition to Nowo and Dixarobil, began on January 14 and lasted until the end of October, for a total of 1,727 consecutive rounds.
Meanwhile, Anacom changed the rules of the auction to speed up the process, increase in the number of daily rounds and forcing the company rate with a large price step…
And at the end of the procedure accused the largest companies of “excessive resistance”by ensuring that competitors are to blame for “systematically resorting to [de licitação] 1% “, in particular №№ and Meo.
But in their statement on the draft final report (which preceded the final version approved on Tuesday by Anacom’s board of directors), the operators once again criticized the regulator for more than just the rules defined for the auction (including spectrum reservation for new participants and mandatory access of these companies to existing networks), but also because of the way this procedure was carried out.
“The failure of the auction is evident in the time it took due to the lack of safety and clarity, among other aspects that relate exclusively to the actions of the regulator, which fully took over the development, approval and publication of the auction. Regulation,” he told Vodafone in a statement released by Anacom.
“Of course, any attempt by Anacom to hold bidders liable for the delay in the procedure and, as a result, the delay in the launch of 5G in Portugal is unacceptable,” the company added, noting that “the bidders’ strategy has been set functionally and in accordance with rigorous rules “determined by the regulatory body in order to” maximize your chances of obtaining the desired result. “
Meo also denies the accusations: “Bringing operators in charge of following, allegedly, deliberately, auction extension strategies is neither fair nor appropriate, as operators were limited to applying existing rules, which it was Anacom’s sole responsibility to assert.”
Altice also argues that “the lack of transparency regarding the number of bidders and the corresponding demand for spectrum in each category may have made it difficult to understand the positions at stake, unnecessarily delaying the outcome of the auction.”
We highlighted the fact that the draft report submitted by Anacom does not reflect “facts related to the problem that the regulation has been subjected to since the process that led to its approval in November 2020” and recall that “the regulation was and continues to be in force. will be widely contested ”, which was developed on the basis of“ incorrect ”assumptions, for example that“ the telecommunications sector in Portugal is not competitive ”and that having more operators is“ synonymous with increased competition ”.
Overall, the three main companies underline the fact that they are supporting their claims in court against the auction rules approved by Anacom and against the changes that were made during the auction.
