Digi Communications clashes with MásMóvil’s plans in the Portuguese 5G auction
Spanish newspaper Expansión reports that Romanian Digi Communications are actively participating in the Portuguese 5G auction, which is disrupting Spanish MásMóvil's expansion plan in the country.
The country’s 5G auction may bring a fifth telecom operator to the Portuguese market.
According to the Spanish newspaper Expansión, the Romanian Digi Communications is actively participating in Portugal’s 5G licence auction, disrupting MásMóvil’s expansion plan in the country, owner of Nowo, which is also taking part in the auction.
In a competitive process that has been going on since the end of last year, the interest of the different players is pushing up licence prices, threatening to reduce the profitability of the different players in the sector.
MásMóvil specifically aimed to buy affordable frequencies in the 1,800 MHz and 3.5 GHz bands, to establish 4G and 5G networks in Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve, according to Expansión. But in the exclusive phase for “new entrants” covering the 1,800 MHz, an unexpected competitor has emerged.
Although the bids are anonymous, the same newspaper points out that Digi, a Romanian company, is battling for this frequency band, forcing the Spanish group to invest more than it expected: to win the three lots in the 1,800 MHz band, the company had to pay almost €55 million, says Expansión.
As for the main phase, which covers the most important frequencies for 5G, it has lasted for more than 150 days.
