ANACOM considers that the lack of demand for the services covered by contract for the universal service provision of the fixed telephone service does not justify maintaining the contract concluded between the Portuguese State and NOS under the terms established in 2014.
In fact, since commencement of the contract, demand for the service has been immaterial, and after more than 3 years without the situation changing, contrary to ANACOM's expectation, there are only two customers. Therefore, ANACOM considers that there is no reason to warrant maintenance of the contract. It should also be noted that there is likewise no demand for the "Retiree and Pensioners" tariff, and there was no contracting of specific offers for customers with special needs.
In view of this data, ANACOM considers that there is evidence that the objectives underlying the universal service contract for this provision (satisfying all reasonable requests for connection to a public communications network at a fixed location and providing a publicly available telephone service at a fixed location via that connection) are being accomplished by the market on a competitive basis.
Financing of this universal service provision, for the five-year period and only for the fixed component of the remuneration, totals 9.6 million euros. NOS has already received a total of 3.05 million euros from the Universal Service Compensation Fund for provisions in respect of 2014 and 2015 (to which the company itself contributed 0.87 million euros; MEO, Vodafone, Nowo and ONI contributed a total of 2.18 million euros). The company still has 6.55 million euros to receive, corresponding to provision of the service in the years 2016 to 2019.
In this context, and in view of the available data, if the State intends to cut the duration of the contracts, ANACOM understands that it will be justified in engaging with NOS with a view to repealing these contracts by mutual agreement.
At the same time, ANACOM is finalizing recommendations to the Government to revise the conditions governing provision of the universal service subsequent to the public consultation launched. In this context, it is ANACOM's conclusion that it is possible to dispense with the need for the State to designate a universal service provider in the current form.
