Total Price: $350 million

Winners:
$87.7 each licenses
- Telecel
- TMA
- Optimus
- Oni Way

On December 19th 2000, the Minister for Social Equipment (MES) announced the results of the call for tenders for the 4 licences of national scope for the international mobile telecommunications systems (IMT2000/UMTS) launched on August 1st 2000.

The announcement followed the presentation, by the committee appointed within the scope of the call for tenders, of the classifications of the bidders and of the proposed attribution of the licences, which were approved by the minister. The four licences put out to tender were therefore granted to the following:

TELECEL - Comunicações Pessoais, SA
TMN - Telecomunicações Móveis Nacionais, SA
ONI WAY - Infocomunicações, SA
OPTIMUS - Telecomunicações, SA

The ICP will issue the licences now granted as soon as the procedures envisaged in the Tender Regulations (Administrative Rule no. 532-A/2000, of July 31) have been complied with.

All bids presented within the scope of the tender for the attribution of four national scope licences, in the IMT2000/UMTS system, have been unanimously accepted by the Assessment Commission. Theses are the bids presented by TMN, Optimus, Oniway, Telecel, Leadcom, Titancon and Mobijazz.

Under the terms of the Tender Regulations, the Commission will have 45 working days in which to present the Government with a list classifying the bidders and an attribution proposal. It shall fall upon the Minister of Social Equipment Compete to ratify the licence attribution proposals.

Licensed companies must start their commercial provision at the beginning of 2002. During the public act, Titancon lodged a complaint in relation to the bidders TMN, Telecel and Mobijazz, with regard to the number of volumes used by these to suitably place their proposals. The complaint was rejected by the Assessment Commission, after verifying that the processes presented by the bidders, against whom the complaint was lodged, unequivocally respect the structure required by the Tender Regulations. The complainant, as set down in the minutes, will lodge a higher appeal with the Minister of Social Equipment.

The opening of public tender bids for the granting of four IMT2000/UMTS licences of national scope will take place next Tuesday, the 3rd of October, at 10am, at the offices of the Instituto das Comunicações de Portugal (ICP), in Alto do Paimão, Barcarena.

The public tender will proceed according to the Tender Regulations, and will be conducted by the analysis committee nominated by the Government. It consists of the reception of bids in sealed envelopes and documentation and items stipulated in the specifications form, of the opening of the same, initialling by bidder and stamping of the original documents. A maximum of three representatives from each bidder may take part in the Tender.

After being accepted for the Tender, the bids will be evaluated by the above-mentioned committee, according to a published analysis grid. The committee will give points to each bidder and will formulate a proposal to grant the licences, which it will submit to the Government, who is responsible for granting them.

Bids should be submitted by 4pm the 29th September, at the headquarters of ICP, in Lisbon. Bids will be evaluated, by priority and successively, with basis on the following criteria: their contribution to the development of the information society, their contribution to efficient market competition; the quality of the technical plan; the quality of the economic-financial plan; and the contribution to the development of sustained economic activity

The licences will be granted before the end of the year. Operators should commence trading at the beginning of 2002.

The Appraisal Committee appointed by the Government has now established the appraisal criteria governing the candidatures in respect of the call for tenders for the new UMTS system licences. The criteria are based on the stipulations of the Call for Tender Regulations, establishing the factors and items and their respective weighting. The Committee also took the decision to publish these criteria.

There are five appraisal criteria: Contribution to the Development of the Information Society; Contribution to Implementing Conditions of Real Competition; Quality of the Technical Plan; Quality of the Economic and Financial Plan; and Contribution to the Development of Sustained Economic Activity.

The first of these criteria concerning the promotion of development and of access to the information society has a weighting of 50% of the total. The aim is to ensure the best possible relationship between the maximum cover provided by the network and the lowest cost of the service. Dependent on this criterion are factors such as promotion of access to and info-inclusion both through economically accessible prices and through the provision of special conditions for lower-income citizens and those having special need, as well as for institutions of proven social merit, such as schools and libraries.

Publication of these appraisal criteria does not substitute the demands established in the call for tenders regulations and in the specifications. Bidders should therefore follow the form and mode required by these two documents.

Bidders shall be bound to the tenders that they submit and by the determinant conditions underpinning the award of the licences. These conditions will be established in the licence itself.

The public call for tenders for the award of the four licences of national scope within the UMTS system will close at 16.00 hours on September 29th. The UMTS - Universal Mobile Telecommunications System is the European version of the global family of technical standards for third generation mobile communications, the IMT 2000 - International Mobile Telecommunications. With its significant technological advances it succeeds the second (GSM and DCS) and the first (analogic mobile communications) generation systems.

The public tender opens for the granting of four third generation mobile licences of national scope to IMT2000/UMTS operators is already open. Bids should be submitted to the Instituto das Comunicações de Portugal (ICP) before 4:00pm on the 29th September 2000.

The licences will be subject to both the payment of an ´entrance fee´ to the state, and to limitations regarding company shareholding. The licences will be granted before the end of the year, enabling trading to commence on 1st of January 2002.

Bidders should submit valid bids by 29th September 2000, and provide ICP with certain details, with special emphasis on the technical and the economic-financial projects. For this purpose bidders should provide a detailed proposal of their technical plan, which should include, among other criteria, the coverage plan, planning and development of the system and the quality standards of the service. It should also include an economic-financial plan which emphasises the following: market development forecasts, the strategic plan, conditions of provision of roaming, range of services, pricing policies, marketing channels, and sources of finance, among others.

Bids will be evaluated, by priority and successively, with basis on the following criteria: their contribution to the information society, their contribution to efficient market competition; the quality of the technical plan, including conditions for sharing of infrastructures; the quality of the economic-financial plan; and the contribution to the development of sustained economic activity. There will be limits on the licensed operators´ shareholding, in order to guarantee diversity of company ownership and efficient market competition. Therefore, no shareholding body of a licensed operator will be authorised to hold more than 10% of the capital of another licensed operator, either directly or indirectly.

In cases where licences are granted, any company that finds itself in this situation should relinquish its position within a year after granting of the licence.

The Instituto das Comunicações de Portugal is to issue four licenses on the UMTS mobile technology in the third quarter of 2000. The licences will be granted during the first quarter of 2001, giving the licensed operators enough time to get ready to start operations on 1 January 2002.

There will be fixed limits to the shareholder participation in the bidding companies, to ensure that no candidate has a direct or indirect holding in the share capital of another candidate. The cover should provide flow-rates of over 128 kbps and the timetable will be as follows:

- 20% of the Portuguese population covered by the end of the first year of the life of the licence;
- 40% of the Portuguese population covered by the end of the third year of the life of the licence;
- and 60% of the Portuguese population covered by the end of the fifth year of the life of the licence.

Bids submitted to ICP that provide roaming for those UMTS licence holders that do not have GSM/DCS will receive preferential appraisal. This provision of roaming is understood to be the possibility of an operator being able to provide the service to its customers within a given geographic area in which it does not provide cover through its own resources, whether via the UMTS systems or via second generation systems, GSM and DCS. The roaming service will be provided as from the time the UMTS licence operators start operating, on 1 January 2002, and will terminate on 31 December 2006, or earlier in the event that one of the UMTS operators is declared to be an Entity with Significant Market Power.