Olhão’s embattled mayor, António Pina, continues to pull vote-winning rabbits out of the hat with today’s announcement that telecoms giant, Altice, is to set up a facility in the Algarve city.
As part of the company's decentralisation programme, put into effect under new owner Patrick Drahi, Altice Labs is setting up in one of the Algarve’s poorest areas.
The laboratories of the Altice Group, known as Altice Labs, has its headquarters in Aveiro but is opening up in Olhão.
Altice Group, based in the Netherlands, was founded by the French billionaire Patrick Drahi who still manages the company and was spotted in the Conrad Algarve during the deal to buy Portugal Telecom.
The "proposal for the timing of the decentralisation process" will be presented on Wednesday, 13th September, at Olhão town hall, according to the mayor whose October 1st re-election prospects continue to brighten despite opponents pointing to a litany of failed initiatives and broken promises.
Pina will welcome Alcino Lavrador, director general of Altice Labs, and André Figueiredo who is the man responsible for development under the company’s Chief Technology Officer.
Altice is a leading multinational in the provision of telecommunications services with presence in France, Israel, Belgium and Luxembourg, Portugal PT, MEO), French Antilles, Indian Ocean area and Dominican Republic and Switzerland.
Olhão has been leading the region’s tourism figures this year but starts from a low base. The city has become a property hot spot, mainly due to French expatriates moving in to take advantage of cheap, run-down property and enviable tax breaks available to inbound Europeans.
The city lacks big employers and, with the notable exception of the fish processing factories, has little remaining industry and few opportunities for increasingly well educated youngsters seeking jobs or developing businesses.
Altice Labs develops advanced digital communication services and supports its clients by constructing specialist technological innovations.
Altice Group owns hundreds of brands in the telecom, wireless and cable markets. In May 2017, the company embarked on a year-long process that will see all its brands becoming ‘Altice.’
