Questions raised over TMN’s nationwide LTE claims

Portugal’s Instituto Civil da Autodisciplina da Publicidade (ICAP) has been forced to intervene in a dispute between Vodafone Portugal and Telecomunicacoes Moveis Nacionais (TMN).

Vodafone contends that TMN’s coverage claims relating to its nationwide Long Term Evolution (LTE) network are misleading.

Various local press reports suggest that ICAP has ordered TMN to cease labeling its 4G network as Portugal’s most comprehensive, pending an investigation into the matter.

For its part, TMN maintains that it provides LTE coverage to 80% of the population; in May Zeinal Bava, CEO of TMN’s parent company Portugal Telecom (PT) said that TMN, and its rivals, had extended LTE coverage from 20% to 80% following the switch-off of the country’s analogue television network on 26 April, which freed up a large portion of 800MHz spectrum that they were entitled to use.

TMN intends to extend coverage to more than 90% of continental Portugal and the outlying islands by the end of 2012.