The Romanian National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) will organize the first frequency spectrum tender in Romania in the first half of 2012, for all the radio frequencies available in the 900 and 1800 MHz bands, which are currently used by operators Cosmote, Orange and Vodafone. ANCOM will also free and open for tender the 800 and 2600 MHz bands, which are currently partially used by the Ministry of National Defense. This would allow new competitors to enter the Romanian mobile telephony market.

The decision follows a debate with the stakeholders of the electronic communications market, that took place yesterday (December 28) at ANCOM headquarters in Bucharest.

The communication authority has extended the licenses for Orange and Vodafone until the end of 2012. Each operators will have to pay EUR 6.4 million for the license extension.

Following the tender next year, the new licenses for the bands currently owned by Orange Romania and Vodafone Romania will come into force at the beginning of 2013. For the bands currently owned by Cosmote, the new license will become valid in April 2014.

“We have chosen the tender procedure because it is the equitable, fair and transparent solution, allowing us to maximize the efficiency of the spectrum usage and achieve the real value of this scarce resource owned by the Romanian state, for the benefit of competition and of the users. Considering that Romania is already covered by several mobile communications networks and that penetration has reached 110 percent, the comparative selections, focusing on the rapidness and amplitude of infrastructure development, are less justified”, said Catalin Marinescu, President of ANCOM.

According to the ANCOM statement, the solution chosen offers equal chances to the operator who does not own rights of use for the frequencies in the 900 and 1800 MHz bands yet- which is local company RCS & RDS.

Vodafone and Orange paid USD 75 million each for their license back in 1996. Cosmote bought the rights to use the 1,710-1,785 MHz/1,805-1,880 MHz frequencies in 1998, valid for 15 years, for some USD 53 million.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Photoxpress.com)