The rules include significant incentives for new entrants, which sparked criticism from existing MNOs.
An auction delayed by COVID-19: On 5 November 2020, the Portuguese regulator ANACOM published the rules for the award of spectrum across six bands – 700MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2.1GHz, 2.6GHz, and 3.6GHz. The auction was due to take place during 2020, and then delayed to Q1 2021 due to COVID-19.
Favourable conditions for new entrants: The rules aim to facilitate competition by reserving spectrum for a new entrant in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands, and ensuring access to national roaming on other networks for 10 years. New entrants will also have to meet less stringent coverage obligations compared to existing MNOs.
Existing operators are very critical: MEO, NOS and Vodafone strongly criticised the draft rules ahead of their publication, noting they penalise operators which have already made significant investment. The initial draft included a 25% discount on 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum for new entrants, which led Vodafone to file a complaint with the European Commission for possible state aid. ANACOM removed the discount from the final rules, noting that there are sufficient incentives for new entrants.
