Lisbon, Oct. 23, 2025 (Lusa) - The CEO of Vodafone Portugal, Luís Lopes, said on Thursday that in the long term, there is no market in Portugal for four telecoms operators.

"If you ask me in the long term, I don't believe it. There's no market in Portugal for four operators," he said at a meeting with journalists at the company's headquarters in Lisbon's Parque das Nações, on the occasion of the company's 33rd anniversary celebrations.

"It's either consolidate or close down, something has to happen," Luís Lopes continued, noting that it's scale that makes operators more competitive.

Asked about the operator's position - whether it consolidates or is consolidated - Luís Lopes recalled that Vodafone Portugal has a position in the Portuguese market that "is an attractive asset", but, on the other hand, "having this strong position puts it in the position of a potential consolidator".

Most countries have three operators, Portugal made licences to have five, in the middle of the game, the fifth operator gave up and wanted to be bought by us initially, it wasn't possible, and was acquired by another, becoming four.

In Europe, there is "a structural problem" because "there are no operators with sufficient scale to be able to face the challenges that other operators, particularly in Asian economies and the US, have," said the manager.

In other words, "these operators operate with scales that allow them much greater efficiencies, so they can produce returns that allow them to be much faster and more capable of investing," he emphasised.

ALU/ADB // ADB.

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