Preliminary decision awards victory in Portugal DTT contest

LISBON — Portugal Telecom (Lisbon: PTC; NYSE: PT) (“PT”) announces that it has been notified of the Draft Final Decision of the Committee of Evaluation of the proposals submitted within the public tender procedure on the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) concerning the Muxes B to F (pay-TV service). In such Draft Final Decision, PT’s proposal, submitted through its subsidiary PT Comunicações, SA, has earned the best classification by an independent jury.

PT, through PT Comunicações, has delivered two proposals to participate in the DTT public tenders: the public tender related to Mux A – transport of the free-to-air (FTA) signal (four existing FTA channels plus a fifth FTA channel to be attributed in 2009); and the public tender on Muxes B to F – allocation of rights to use five frequencies (two nationwide and three regional) and the licensing of a pay-TV operator.

This preliminary decision of the Public Tender Committee, which will be subject to prior hearing of the interested parties, thus awards PT the victory in the DTT public tender related with the pay-TV service. The licenses to be attributed will be valid for a 15-year period, as from the date of the respective attribution. The procedure for the evaluation of PT’s proposal related to the Mux A (transport of the free-to-air signal) is in progress and PT is the only bidder for this public tender.

The participation of PT in both DTT tenders and the preliminary decision of the Public Tender Committee for Mux B to F confirm PT’s commitment towards the successful rollout of DTT in Portugal as well as towards the implementation of its multi-platform pay-TV strategy, which aims to be a growth lever of the domestic operations of PT.