Have your say on Portugal's mobile spectrum before 27 August
Anacom would renew Meo, Nos and Vodafone's frequencies to somewhere between 2033 and 2042 depending on the band. The operators wanted 40 years. The public consultation closes on 27 August.
The licences Meo, Nos and Vodafone built their mobile networks on expire at the end of 2027, and Portugal’s telecoms regulator has now set out what it intends to do about them. It will renew. Just not for as long as the operators hoped, and not for every frequency at once: Anacom’s draft decision stretches some bands to 2041 and 2042 and stops others in April 2033.
Which band gets what
The split follows what each frequency is for. The 800 MHz band, the one that carries coverage a long way and gets inside buildings, stays with all three operators until 30 November 2041. Parts of the 900 MHz holdings at Nos and Vodafone run to January 2042. The 2600 MHz band, the capacity layer used where a lot of people are online in the same place, stops for everyone on 21 April 2033.
That leaves two clocks running inside the same network. Seven years on one part, fifteen or sixteen on the other.
Why the industry pushed back
Apritel, the association that speaks for the three, called it a wrong decision that introduces regulatory uncertainty in a capital-intensive sector and undermines investment. Its central argument is comparative: the European Commission has a proposal on the table for renewals of unlimited duration, or at least 40 years, while Anacom is proposing six to 14. The association also objects to the prospect of some spectrum currently in use not being renewed at all.
On the other side sits the usual regulator’s reason for not locking everything down for decades. Keeping room to redistribute spectrum later, including to newer entrants, means the market is not frozen into a shape drawn in 2026.
What it means for you
Nothing changes on your bill or your coverage this month. What is being settled is how long each operator has to earn back what it spent, and that tends to surface later, in decisions about where a new mast is worth putting up. Worth remembering that the 5G auction, which closed in October 2021, raised 566.8 million euros for the state, and that the network it produced is still reaching new places, such as the underground stretches of the Lisbon metro.
The draft decision can still change. The operators’ prior hearing and the public consultation run until 27 August, and that window is where anyone with something to say has to say it.
By Oliver Grant
Chart: Tugadaily · data from Anacom
