Ministério do Equipamento Social (Minister of Social Equipment)
Administrative Rule
The Public Tender Regulations for the Attribution of a Licence for the Provision of a Complementary Mobile Telecommunications Service - Land Mobile Service, approved by Administrative Ruling no. 447-A/97, of 7th July, published under the terms of Decree-Law no. 346/90, of 3rd November, revoked in the interim by Decree-Law no. 381-A/97, of 30th December, which came to regulate the new access regime to being a public telecommunications network, establishes in point 4 of its article 15 the limit for alterations to the composition of the share capital of a company to which would be granted the licence then put out to tender.
With this limitation, It was intended to bestow upon the tutelage minister the faculty of being able to exercise control over the shareholders' composition of the licensed company, so as to guarantee not only the latter's technical capacity, but also its own financial soundness, essential conditions for fully implementing and operating the third operator of the so called Complementary Mobile Telecommunications Service - Land Mobile Service.
In the interim, the third operator licensed within the scope of the tender opened under the terms of Administrative Ruling no. 447-A/97, of July 7th, has not only assured the operational and coverage levels, but has also fully met the solid financial ratios required by the licence. On the other hand, the public tender regulations for the attribution of four licences within a national Portuguese scope for international mobile telecommunications systems (IMT2000/UMTS), approved by Administrative Ruling no. 532-A/2000, of 31st July, subjects the holders of the respective licences to reduce to 10% their share, should they possibly hold shares in another entity which has also been licensed within the context of this last tender.
Thus, and contrary to what happens with the other operators and respective shareholders in the then Complementary Mobile Telecommunications Service - Land Mobile Service, operating according to the GSM and DCS1800 norms, the third operator licensed within the scope of the open tender under the terms of that set out in Administrative Ruling no. 447-A/97, of 7th July, as well as the respective shareholders are, faced with the indicated limitations to the transmission of the respective shareholdings, subject to less favourable conditions with a view to possibly meeting the requisites of the tender now approved for the four IMT2000/UMTS licences.
By that set out and with no further justifications, as the public interest ends have been met, the limitations to the alteration of the composition of the share capital of the referred operator shall be the responsibility of the Portuguese Government, in pursuing the principles of transparency and equality of conditions which, by nature, characterise any public tender, and place all potential competitors on an equal footing from the outset, namely regarding the capacity to meet the requirements to which the grant of the licence may come to be conditioned.
Under these terms:
The Portuguese Government decrees, through the Minister for Social Equipment, under the terms of point 2 of article 13 of Decree-Law no. 381-A/97, of 30th December, the following:
1. Points 4 and 5 of Article 15 of the Public Tender Regulations for the Attribution of a Licence for the Provision of a Complementary Mobile Telecommunications Service - Land Mobile Service, approved by Administrative Ruling no. 447-A/97, of 7th July, are hereby revoked.
2. The present administrative ruling shall come into effect the day following its publication.
The Minister for Social Equipment, Jorge Paulo Sacadura Almeida Coelho, on 8th September, 2000.
