In addition, companies requested, in the scope of the approval of the referred agreement, that the possibility to make bilateral exchanges of parishes, subsequently and by mutual agreement, was explicitly safeguarded, suggesting that this possibility was admitted up to the date of compliance with additional coverage obligations arising from the renewal of their RUF, ANACOM being informed (by parties involved in the bilateral exchange) within at the most 10 days from the date on which the bilateral agreement was reached, for the purpose of approval thereof.
To support their request, companies alleged that is the possibility that best safeguards the public interest, as it guarantees greater efficiency in the application of general resources, without preventing the objective of mobile broadband coverage, for which 588 parishes were identified, from being reached.
As far as this request is concerned, it must be stressed, first and foremost, that determination of 18 February 2016 establishes, that in the absence of an agreement or in case of a partial agreement, a random selection of parishes is to be carried out, to determine the order in which operators will select parishes by turns, one by one, until all parishes have been assigned. Only in this situation was it provided that operators would be able to agree, within one month at the most, on the exchange of parishes that had been allocated to them.
Without prejudice, and notwithstanding the fact that ANACOM considers, in fact, that any subsequent bilateral exchange of parishes would not affect the ultimate target of imposing additional coverage obligations, nor the public interest underlying such imposition, it must be safeguarded that the distribution of the referred parishes is stabilized, and duly approved by this Authority in good time.
It is noted that the approval of the agreement for distribution of parishes defines the geographic scope of additional coverage obligations imposed in this scope on the three operators, which is to be integrated in the corresponding titles laying down rights of use for frequencies, and which, as such, must be published and widely disclosed, in the light of the public interest underlying their imposition.
In this context, ANACOM considers that bilateral parish exchanges by mutual agreement may be allowed, however a deadline must be set for communication of any amendment to the agreement for distribution of the 588 parishes as tend to lack mobile broadband which is now approved, thereby ensuring its timely and final approval, as well as its public disclosure.
Taking into account that additional coverage obligations shall only enter into force as from the renewal of RUF, which will take place on 21 April, 4 June and 5 May 2018, respectively for MEO, NOS and VODAFONE, it is deemed appropriate to establish 21 March 2018 as the deadline for communication by operators to ANACOM of any amendment to the distribution of the referred parishes that results from bilateral exchanges that are agreed on subsequently to the approval of the agreement concerned y this determination.
