The mobile arm of the former incumbent Romanian company Romtelecom, currently controlled indirectly by Deutsche Telekom, hasn’t filed the preliminary documents for attending a 5G license auction. Romania Mobile Communications (formerly Cosmote) is the sole of the four Romanian mobile operators that have not lined up in the auction organized by telecom regulator body ANCOM.

The actual auction will start on November 8, and ANCOM expects to wrap it up by the end of that month.

The other three players, Orange Romania, Vodafone Romania and DIGI Communications, have signed up and aim to compete for frequency bands totalling 555 MHz in the regions of 700 MHz, 1500 MHz, 2600 MHz și 3400-3800 MHz for developing 5G applications, Economica.net reported.

The auction commission will analyze their documents and announce by November 4 which of them are accepted to participate in the auction.

The licenses, valid for 22-25 years, are expected to bring nearly EUR 700 mln to the state budget in fees paid by the telecom operators. Overall, the investments in 5G networks, including the fees, are estimated at EUR 2 bln.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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