By determination of 17 November 2015 1, ANACOM approved a draft decision on the renewal of rights of use for frequencies allocated in the 2100 MHz band for terrestrial electronic communications services, which read as follows:
1. To renew, for a 15-year period, rights of use for frequencies in the 1920-1980 MHz / 2110-2170 MHz sub-band allocated to NOS Comunicações, S. A., MEO – Serviços de Comunicações e Multimédia, S. A., and Vodafone Portugal - Comunicações Pessoais, S. A., under the terms laid down in draft endorsements to titles ICP-ANACOM No. 01/2012, ICP-ANACOM No. 02/2012 and ICP-ANACOM No. 03/2012, in Annex 1 hereto, deemed to be an integral part hereof.
2. To approve the list of 588 parishes as tend to lack mobile broadband coverage, determined according to the methodology described in point 4.2.2 above, which is laid down in Annex 2 to this determination, deemed to be an integral part hereof.
3. To determine that NOS Comunicações, S. A., MEO - Serviços de Comunicações e Multimédia, S. A., and Vodafone Portugal - Comunicações Pessoais, S. A., are required to cover 196 of parishes listed in Annex 2 to this determination, being granted a one-year period of time from the notification of the final decision on the renewal of the relevant rights of use for frequencies to notify ANACOM of the decision on the distribution that is reached by agreement.
4. It is incumbent on ANACOM to approve the result of the agreement referred to in the preceding paragraph or, in the absence thereof, to decide on the distribution of parishes among the referred operators, carrying out for this purpose a random selection of parishes, in order to implement the geographic scope of coverage obligations, which thus becomes an integral part of titles laying down rights of use for frequencies.
5. Where appropriate, the place, date and rules of the random selection shall be defined by ANACOM and notified to the referred operators.
6. For the purpose of the draft amendment of point 11.3 of titles ICP-ANACOM No. 01/2012 and ICP-ANACOM No. 2/2012 and of point 12.3 of title ICP-ANACOM No. 03/2012, included in Annex 1 hereto and deemed to be an integral part hereof, NOS Comunicações, S. A., MEO - Serviços de Comunicações e Multimédia, S. A., and Vodafone Portugal - Comunicações Pessoais, S. A. are required:
a) Within 60 working days from the date of renewal of the respective rights of use for frequencies, to submit to ANACOM responses to the ad-hoc questionnaire approved for this purpose in a separate determination taken by this Authority;
b) In each year, to present to ANACOM a declaration confirming that, on 31 December of the preceding year, levels of population coverage reported in the respective responses to the referred ad-hoc questionnaire have been guaranteed. This declaration shall be signed by whoever is entitled to bind the company, bearing a certified signature or attaching the respective commercial register certificate or access code to the permanent certificate. The deadline to submit this annual declaration shall coincide with the deadline to submit the declaration referred to in point IV of determination of 17 November 2014 (vide IV.Decisionhttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=381529).
7. The renewal of the referred rights of use for frequencies in the 1920-1980 MHz / 2110-2170 MHz sub-band shall not have the effect of or result in the revocation of breach proceedings already initiated, or to be initiated, for failure to comply with obligations laid down in current titles ICP-ANACOM No. 01/2012, ICP-ANACOM No. 02/2012 and ICP-ANACOM No. 03/2012.
8. Endorsements to titles ICP-ANACOM No. 01/2012, ICP-ANACOM No. 02/2012 and ICP-ANACOM No. 03/2012, as set out in Annex I hereto, shall only take effect as from 5 June 2018, 22 April 2018 and 6 May 2018, respectively, titles with the current wording remaining in force until such dates.
This draft decision was submitted to the prior hearing of MEO - Serviços de Comunicações e Multimédia, S. A. (MEO), NOS Comunicações, S. A. (NOS) and Vodafone Portugal - Comunicações Pessoais, S. A. (VODAFONE), under article 100 et seq of the former Code of Administrative Procedure, approved by Decree-Law No. 442/91, of 15 November, as well as to the general consultation procedure, under articles 8 and 33, paragraph 3, of the Electronic Communications Law (ECL)2, stakeholders having been granted 20 working days to assess both procedures, if they so wished.
Further to requests from NOS and MEO, ANACOM decided, by determination of 17 December 2015 3, to extend for an additional period of 15 working days the period given to assess the public consultation and prior hearing procedures regarding this draft decision. The deadline for comments thus expired on 14 January 2016.
In the scope of the referred procedures, timely contributions were received from MEO, NOS and VODAFONE.
The report of the prior hearing and consultation procedures was drawn up, which is deemed to be an integral part of this decision, and includes a summary of contributions received as well as of ANACOM’s views thereon. The report substantiates this decision, and justifies also amendments that ANACOM deemed fit to introduce hereto.
1 Available at ''Renewal of rights of use of frequencies allocated in the 2100 MHz band for terrestrial electronic communications services''https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1372749.
2 Law No. 5/2004, of 10 February, as amended and republished by Law No. 51/2011, of 13 September, and subsequently amended by Law No. 10/2013, of 28 January, by Law No. 42/2013, of 3 July, by Decree-Law No. 35/2014, of 7 March and by Law No. 82-B/2014, of 31 December.
3 Available at ''Extension of consultation on renewal of rights of use of frequencies allocated in 2100 MHz band for terrestrial electronic communications services''https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1375018.
