Portugal has been given an extra two years, until January 2000, to open up its public phone services to competition

Date: 13/02/1997

The European Commission's move came in response to Lisbon's plea that it needed more time to spread telephone use and re-balance its charges. But the Commission did not accede to all Portugal's derogation requests, instructing Lisbon to allow businesses to set up their own closed phone networks by July this year and demanding that companies be allowed to use alternative mobile networks by January 1998.