ANCOM, the Romanian telecoms regulator, announced plans to hold the nation’s first spectrum auction in the first half of 2012, opening frequencies in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands for tender. The regulator said it would also “take all necessary…
ANCOM, the Romanian telecoms regulator, announced plans to hold the nation’s first spectrum auction in the first half of 2012, opening frequencies in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands for tender. The regulator said it would also “take all necessary steps” to auction space in the 800MHz and 2.6GHZ spectrums, currently used by the Ministry of National Defence.
“We have chosen the tender procedure because it is the equitable, fair and transparent solution, allowing us to maximise the efficiency of the spectrum usage and achieve [its] real value … for the benefit of competition and of users,” said ANCOM president Catalin Marinescu.
“Considering that Romania is already covered by several mobile communications networks and penetration has already reached 110%, the comparative selections, focusing on the rapidness and amplitude of infrastructure development are less justified.”
ANCOM also confirmed that mobile operators Orange and Vodafone will have their licences in the 900MHZ and 1800MZ spectrums extended for another year while it paves the way for newcomers.
Both operators will have to pay a €6.4m fee to the state for the extensions – a sum ANCOM described as “proportionate with the amounts paid for obtaining the licences in 1996”.
ANCOM stated new licences for bands currently owned by Orange and Vodafone would take effect from 1 January 2013, while those for bands owned by Cosmote – the nation’s third largest mobile operator – would enter force on 6 April 2014.
