By Chris Skeldon 
If the main auction, which ran for more than five months (started on January 14) and was expected to end by the end of the first quarter, had ended today, the country would have raised more than €411 million (the amount that includes the bid for newcomers worth €84.3 million). ), which is significantly higher than the indicative amount of €237.9 million.
At the end of March, commercial 5G (5th generation) services were already available in 24 EU countries up to 27, and Portugal, whose EU presidency ends this month, is not yet available.
On Monday, bids totaled 326.4 million euros.
Currently, the 3.6GHz band, with 40 segments, is the only band that has been a target for shows – more specifically since March 5th – with €172.2 million, compared to €171.8 million in the previous session.
5G licenses were due to be awarded in the first quarter, and on April 8, the Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (Anacom) announced the decision to amend the relevant regulation to speed up the auction, which was widely criticized by existing operators.
However, on May 31, the regulator approved a project to change the 5G auction regulation, in order to speed up the process, making it possible to carry out 12 daily rounds, which are also being contested by operators.
The main bid, involving operators Altice Portugal (Meo), Nos, Vodafone Portugal and also Dense Air, aims to allocate rights to use frequencies in the 700MHz, 900MHz, 2.1GHz, 2.6GHz and 3.6GHz bands, after the first phase. Exclusively for new arrivals.
As of the fourth day of bidding, only one lot of the released DTT band (700MHz) – which contains six contracts – remains without any bid and is the only one in the entire auction.
Thus, in the 700MHz band, the bid price remained at 19.2 million euros. In total, the bids total 96 million euros.
Also in the 900MHz band, the four groups available continue without any change in the reserve price, with the operators’ bid remaining at 24 million euros.
The 2.1 GHz band, which was the most interesting until January 18, when the offer reached 10.405 million euros (the base price was 2 million euros), rose on the seventh day to 10.616 million euros, a value that is still today.
In the 2.6GHz band, whose three lots totaled €23.7 million from February 16 to March 3, the previous bid value of €23.9 million has been maintained today.
At an earlier stage, a tender was launched for newcomers for an eight-day period, which resulted in a cash flow of 84.3 million euros on the last day (11 January).
Newcomers can take advantage of national roaming to access operators’ already installed networks, regardless of the quality of spectrum they get, according to the terms of the auction.
The process has been widely challenged by historical operators, including lawsuits, injunctions and complaints to Brussels, claiming that the regulation contained “illegal” and “discriminatory” actions, which encouraged divestment.
ALU // EA
Lusa / end