Romania's communications authority ANCOM will grant usage rights for frequencies in the 450MHz band by request, according to an announcement made yesterday (April 1 ). Telemobil, the former Zapp mobile operator, used the band until March 24, but it is now free. ANCOM had originally planned to sell off rights to the band via a competitive tender, but "operators expressed no firm intentions of participating." Cosmote took over Telemobil - Zapp in 2009 for some EUR 207 million.

Zapp's former band will be used for  narrowband applications, including push-to-talk voice services (telephony), data transmission services, voice-and-data simultaneous transfer, dispatch services, selective calls and emergency calls, call prioritization and call-on-hold, group calls and dynamic administration of user groups, ability to provide VPN services, among others

ANCOM consulted the industry on possible future use of the band ahead of the expiration of Telemobil's rights. There was also a plan to run a competitive tender for rights in the band, but ANCOM abandoned the idea due to lack of interest from operators, opting instead to grant usage rights by request. ANCOM indicated that there may be competitive bids in the future, if there is sufficient competition for available bandwidth.

The announcement came in ANCOM's position paper on the use of the radio spectrum in the 453-457.5 MHz/463-467.5 MHz bands, also published yesterday.

editor@romania-insider.com