ANACOM releases its Report on Regulation, Supervision and Other Activities for 2022https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1746630. Over the year, ANACOM continued its mission regulating the communications sector with the aim of ensuring sustained development across the sector, promoting and safeguarding competition and protecting the rights and interests of consumers and other users.
At a national level, 2022 was a year marked by an intense level of regulatory activity, complemented by a series of interventions by ANACOM in its role supporting and advising the Government. This included monitoring national 5G deployment, with 5,842 base stations installed in Portugal at the end of 2022 with 5G technology. Approval was given to Plano Estratégico do Espectro (Strategic Spectrum Plan), drawn up following consultation with the market and setting out ANACOM's strategic vision on the availability of frequencies to be used by civil radio services/applications. Other market consultations in this area were held on the availability of spectrum in the 1500 MHz, 26 GHz and 700 MHz bands.
In terms of market regulation, there was a downward revision of monthly fees applied in the reference offers for access to ducts (RDAO) and access to poles (RPAO), and a decision regarding amendments to those reference offers.
In 2022, ANACOM continued with programmes, directed in particular at local authorities, to raise awareness and convey information on the deployment of electronic communications networks and respective infrastructure, especially 5G. This work was aimed at achieving the harmonization of procedures, as well as a reduction in installation fees for base stations and a harmonization of fees at a national level.
The Report notes ANACOM's interventions to protect the interests of users, particularly in the context of increased inflationary pressures and the consequent rise in the cost of living in Portugal – a situation without precedent in recent history. A recommendation was addressed to providers of electronic communications services, urging them to consider the impact of their pricing policies on households in the context of tariff updates for new subscriptions and in reviewing prices for contracts in force.
With regard to the Open Internet, a draft decision was approved (subsequent decision approved in 2023) requiring Internet access service providers to discontinue zero-rating and similar offers that discriminate, at a commercial level, between traffic relating to zero-rated applications and other traffic.
In 2022, the social tariff for the provision of broadband Internet access services entered into force (established by Decree-Law no. 66/2021https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1687781 of 30 July). ANACOM worked (i) to ensure that the tariffs available from companies offering this type of service complied with the approved technical and price conditions, and (ii) on the development of the Social Internet Tariff management platform, to verify the conditions of eligibility for the tariff's potential beneficiaries.
ANACOM has been monitoring uptake of the social Internet tariff since its launch, and ran a wide-ranging information campaign in the press, radio and with universities to inform consumers about the tariff's access conditions.
In exercising its supervisory powers, ANACOM devoted particular attention to verifying compliance with the obligations of the legal regime governing the construction of infrastructure suitable for carrying electronic communications networks and the installation of electronic communications networks. Supervision actions were focused on the Suitable Infrastructure Information System (SIIA) – these actions were key in enabling the sharing of infrastructure and to facilitate the installation of operator networks. Along the same lines, inspections were carried out targeting providers of postal and electronic communications services operating in the market, especially with regard to compliance with obligations arising from the renewal and allocation of rights of use of frequencies in the 2100 MHz band, following the multiband auction and following security audits of networks and services carried out under the terms of the Security Regulation.
ANACOM continued the development of the supervision, inspection and sanctioning action project, which is focused on the simplification of legislation, modernization and on the digitization of the procedures in ANACOM's supervision, inspection and sanctioning activities. The objective of this project is for all future activity of ANACOM's supervisory area, including its interaction with stakeholders, to be carried out electronically. In this context, a digital platform was implemented that has enabled electronic processing of ANACOM administrative offence proceedings since the end of 2022.
In regulatory matters, a set of regulatory procedures were initiated in 2022 and a set of draft regulations approved, including:
- A draft regulation on the designation of a numbering range for the offer of the transmission service used for the provision of machine-to-machine (M2M) services;
- The commencement of the procedure for amending Regulation no. 99/2009https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=975622 of 23 February on provision to authorities responsible for providing emergency services of information on the location of callers to the single European 112 emergency number (Regulation 112L), adapting the regulation to the legal framework in force and to the technological developments that are envisaged with the new generation of this service;
- Commencement of the procedure to amend Regulation no. 255/2017https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1415433 of 16 May - Regulation on the provision of statistical information, approved by ANACOM decision of 23 August 2022. This amendment process took into account the development of the electronic communications sector, the market and available technologies that has occurred since the entry into force of Regulation no. 255/2017 and sought to adapt the collection of information to current needs.
In the context of the universal postal service, the new concession contract between the Portuguese State and CTT – Correios de Portugal (CTT) entered into force on 8 February 2022. The contract sets out criteria governing the pricing of the postal services of the universal service, to be established for a period of 3 years by agreement between ANACOM, Direção Geral do Consumidor (Directorate General for Consumers) and CTT (provider of the universal postal service).
With regard to the preparation of legal drafts, the draft amendment to the amateur radio rules was submitted to the government, with the aim of contributing to the activity's development. ANACOM has considered the promotion and enhancement of this activity as a matter of particular importance, particularly for younger generations.
ANACOM imposed fines of over 15 million euros on the four main electronic communications operators (MEO Serviços de Comunicações e Multimédia, NOS Comunicações, Vodafone Portugal – Comunicações Pessoais and Nowo Communications) for the adoption of behaviour in breach of the legal rules applicable to the communication of changes in contracted prices, in relation to a high number of subscribers (which resulted in the commission of serious offences) and for failing to provide information to ANACOM.
With regard to coverage by public electronic communications networks with very high capacity, ANACOM launched two public consultations within the scope of its functions of assisting the Government. The consultations were focused on the components of the public tender procedure to be carried out for the installation, management, operation and maintenance of these networks in geographic areas of the national territory where there is no coverage, known as blank areas (these areas were identified by ANACOM through detailed coverage mapping of the entire national territory).
ANACOM prepared and sent the Government the draft administrative rule to define the technical specifications of the information to be uploaded to the platform and the information to be transmitted by electronic communications network operators on the fixed and mobile network, as provided for in Decree-Law no. 40/2022https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1723303 of 6 June.
At the end of 2022, ANACOM launched the Geospatial Platform (GEO.ANACOM), an application solution that offers users a range of functionalities operating on available geographic data, including detailed information searches, production of heat maps, clusters and map printing. This unique, corporate and collaborative geospatial solution from ANACOM aims to integrate all geographic information available in the organisation and establish connections with external information sources.
At a European level, ANACOM's action was focused on discussions about the new legislative framework for the digital economy, with particular emphasis on the Regulation of Digital Markets (Digital Markets Act - DMA) and the Regulation of Digital Services (Digital Services Act - DSA). In this context, ANACOM actively participated in discussions about these two proposed Regulations, participating in a series of meetings with the European Commission on the implementation of the DSA in Portugal, where the information-sharing tool was discussed. ANACOM was also one of the organisations providing national representation at the Digital Services Committee, from the end of 2022, and in the Digital Services Experts Group, from the beginning of 2023. Additionally, ANACOM contributed to the negotiation and discussion of the European Commission's proposals for the Data Regulation and Artificial Intelligence Regulation.
The Report on Regulation, Supervision and Other Activities for 2022 was submitted to Assembleia da República (Assembly of the Republic) and to the Portuguese Government, in accordance with the applicable legislation.
Consult:
- Regulation, Supervision and Other Activities Report 2022 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1746630
