The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a profound change in our way of life and the way we work. In order to face the new situation, ANACOM has implemented a COVID-19 Contingency Planhttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=413403, which has allowed the optimisation and continuity of the Authority’s activities, with employees performing their duties under a teleworking arrangement.
This new situation has also resulted in regular and intensive exchanges of information with other regulatory authorities, both within the European Union, under the coordination of the BEREC and the ERGP, as well as in liaison with Portuguese-speaking countries, on the measures adopted in each country in the communications sector. There has also been an exchange of information concerning procedures and actions with other Portuguese regulatory authorities.
In this new context, and with a view to ensuring consumer protection and the normal functioning of the sector during the exceptional period that we are currently experiencing, ANACOM has adopted a wide range of measures, which are listed below.
- Measures for consumers
In view of the need to shelter in place in order to contain the spread of COVID-19, one of the first concerns of ANACOM was to alert citizens to the need to use the telephone and digital channels whenever they needed to contact ANACOM or their service providers, whether to clarify doubts, seek information, submit complaints or resolve contractual matters.
Aware that an appropriate use of telecommunications networks may prevent congestion and overloading that could make the use of services unfeasible, ANACOM published a set of recommendations (Best practices for using electronic communications networks and serviceshttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1522194) for proper use of the Internet, in order to prevent possible disruptions to services at a time when everyone needs the Internet to work, study and maintain social contact.
As cyber attacks and scams are increasing via the Internet, SMS and face-to-face, ANACOM has alerted consumers to these situations (Fraud and cyberattacks related to COVID-19 are increasinghttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1522189), urging everyone to remain alert to the warnings issued by the authorities and to help to disseminate them to their respective networks of contacts, thus contributing towards putting an end to these situations and to the dissemination of misleading information.
ANACOM has also regularly published useful information for consumers, in particular regarding the exceptional measures approved by the Government, Parliament or service providers, on the ANACOM Consumer Portalhttps://www.anacom-consumidor.pt/.
- Measures for citizens, micro and small enterprises and organisations and non-profit organisations
ANACOM has presented to the Government, and more recently to the Assembly of the Republic, a legislative proposal consisting of a set of measures aimed at strengthening the protection of users’ rights (COVID-19 - ANACOM delivers to the Assembly of the Republic a proposal to strengthen the protection of users of electronic communicationshttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1530841), recommending the immediate application of these measures to operators:
- The termination of contracts on the initiative of customers, up to 6 months after the end of the exception period, without fees associated with a loyalty period being charged, or, alternatively, (i) downgrading of the contract to a more basic, but cheaper, service that they can afford, at a time when they are struggling with a major loss of income, or (ii) temporary suspension of the contract, with the option to resume it later, under the same conditions and keeping the same phone number, an option that, according to the information that has been reported to us by users, has not been accepted, voluntarily, by the service providers;
- an undertaking not to suspend or deactivate services, including in the event of delayed payment or non-payment;
- a ban on charging customers interest on arrears or other penalties for late payment of bills or topping up of balances;
- the establishment of a debt settlement period of at least six months (unless the customer expressly opts for a shorter period);
- the establishment of a limit for the monthly fee payable to settle the debt. Instalments of an amount greater than half of the monthly fee for the contracted services may not be imposed on the customer, unless expressly agreed to by the subscriber.
These measures are aimed at consumers who are unemployed or who have lost income, micro and small enterprises that have ceased operations or that have reported a fall in turnover and non-profit organisations that have closed down or that have lost income.
- Measures for providers of electronic communications services
In view of the exceptional period resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the declaration of a state of emergency, and acknowledging the importance of providers of electronic communications networks and services concentrating their efforts on building the capacity of infrastructure to respond to the intensive use of networks and services, ANACOM has suspended two important processes that were underway and that consumed operators’ resources. These relate to the digital terrestrial television transmitter network migration process, which was suspended when the COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization (DTT network migration process suspended due to the constraints associated to COVID-19https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1520230); and the suspension of the spectrum allocation process for 5G and other relevant bands, a few days later (Suspension of the consultation periods for the draft Regulation of the auction for allocation of RUF in the 700 MHz band and other relevant bands, and for the draft decision on the change of RUF held by Dense Air Portugalhttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1520194).
Operators that needed extra spectrum to deal with the increase in the consumption of electronic communications by the population were granted this by ANACOM.
- Measures to bolster monitoring of the sector
The exceptional situation in which the country finds itself has led ANACOM to bolster monitoring of the sector, in order to have at its disposal constantly updated information on the details of the situation of fixed and mobile networks and the measures that operators plan to adopt or actually do adopt, so as to ensure that connectivity in Internet access and other telephone and data communications, including broadband, is maintained.
To this end, it obtains information from operators on how COVID-19 is impacting their activities, trends in traffic, whether there are situations of network congestion resulting from increased demand, if there are constraints in terms of supply, which measures have been adopted, including in terms of the protection of employees who may be critical to the activities of those companies, the type of cooperation that is being offered to other undertakings, particularly with regard to civil protection, and also the way in which emergency communications are being processed.
Against this background, ANACOM has launched weekly surveys on communications services, with the objective of monitoring the activity of the sector during the period in which the exceptional and temporary measures associated with COVID-19 are in force and contributing towards identifying the effects of the pandemic on the activities of families and companies (COVID-19 - Postal parcel traffic increases by 10% compared to the pre-pandemic periodhttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1530901).
The current circumstances that the country is faced with justify the collection of high frequency indicators that enable possible changes in trends in the electronic communications markets and in the technical/economic environment to be detected at the earliest opportunity.
The information obtained is used by ANACOM and by external entities that produce statistics and monitor the economic environment and activity, namely the Strategy and Studies Office of the Ministry of the Economy, the Planning, Strategy, Evaluation and International Relations Office of the Ministry of Finance, the National Institute of Statistics, the Bank of Portugal and the National Cybersecurity Centre.
