Portugal Telecom, Sonaecom and Vodafone win in Portugal's 4G auction

Portugal Telecom, Sonaecom and Vodafone Portugal have each won spectrum in Portugal’s LTE spectrum auction.

Portugal Telecom and Sonaecom’s mobile phone units, TMN and Optimus respectively, both announced that they had placed winning bids in three frequency bands. They each paid a total of €113m for nine blocks; the minimum price set by the Portuguese telecommunications regulator, Anacom.

The operators said that they plan to use the acquired spectrum to provide mobile communications services based on 4G-LTE technology. TMN has been trialling LTE since April 2011, and is already doing live tests in Cascais and Braga.

Meanwhile, Vodafone Portugal announced that it has also won a total of 123MHz (2x49MHz FDD 25MHz TDD) spectrum in the 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2600MHz frequency bands. It will pay a total of €146m for the spectrum.

The operator plans to use this spectrum to provide mobile communications services based on 4G/LTE technology, and added that “the spectrum in the 900MHz band will further improve the coverage and quality of service, using 3G/HSPA technology, esp­ecially inside buildings.”

The LTE mobile telephony auction was launched on 28 November and the Portuguese government said earlier this year that it needed to raise €200 million through the sale of 4G licenses in 2011, as its government budget for the year already includes planned revenue from the sale of 4G licenses.