The auction for the allocation of 5G licences in Portugal is to take place between October and December, with the allocation of the rights to use frequencies scheduled for January/February 2021, the National Communications Authority (Anacom) has said.
In a communiqué on Thursday, Anacom said it had received about 500 contributions in the framework of the public consultation of the draft regulation of the auction for the allocation of rights of use of frequencies for the fifth mobile generation (5G) and other relevant bands (700 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2.1 GHz, 2.6 GHz and 3.6 GHz), which ended last Friday.
According to him, government bodies, the two regional governments, regulators, public institutions, local authorities, providers of electronic communications services, manufacturers and the public participated in the process.
“Having concluded this phase of the procedure, Anacom considers it appropriate to update the indicative timetable for the holding of the auction, because of the impact of the suspension of the public consultation procedure between March and June due to the pandemic crisis, replacing the timetable that had been published in December 2019,” the statement said.
The new dates now showed that the approval of the draft regulation will take place in September 2020, with the auction then taking place between the months of October and December and with the conclusion of the procedures for the allocation of rights to use frequencies scheduled for January/February 2021 (in the previous calendar it was scheduled for the beginning of the second half of 2020).
On 9 June, the president of Anacom, João Cadete de Matos, told the parliamentary committee of Economy, Innovation and Public Works that it would be bad if the auction to allocate the 5G frequencies were not this year.
“We have a delay with the pandemic of about three months, so there will certainly be the auction this year unless there is an anomalous situation, which we do not anticipate, and which we do not want and we do not expect,” he said.
According to Altice’s calendar proposed to Anacom, the resumption of the migration process of the 700 MHz band of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), essential for the start-up of 5G, will take place in August and continue until November.
Source: https://www.macaubusiness.com/portugal-5g-licence-auction-october-to-december-anacom/