25.07.2016

 

“The National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications of Romania applied fines amounting to a total of RON 900,000 to Orange, Vodafone and Telekom for failure to meet the coverage obligations provided in the licences for the use of the radio spectrum acquired following the selection procedure organised by the Authority in 2012“, declared Cristin Popa, Executive Director within ANCOM.  

In the spectrum auction conducted in 2012, the Authority imposed on each of the operators that acquired rights of use for the radio frequencies below 1 GHz (800 MHz and/or 900 MHz) – Cosmote, Orange, RCS&RDS and Vodafone – the obligation to cover a certain number of the 676 localities unserved by broadband mobile communications networks, in direct proportion to the acquired spectrum resources. Thus, Vodafone and Orange had the obligation to cover 225 rural localities each, Cosmote - 169, and RCS&RDS - 57 rural localities. The deadline by which the operators had the obligation to cover these localities was 5 April 2016.

Starting from 6 April 2016, the Authority carried out a campaign for verifying the operators’ degree of compliance with the obligation to cover the rural localities provided in the acquired licences with mobile communications networks in UMTS technology, IMT-enhanced (HSPA, HSPA+) or LTE technologies, or other equivalent technologies.

Following ANCOM’s control actions, Vodafone Romania was found in breach of its obligation to cover 72 localities of those under its licence. This company was sanctioned by a contravention fine amounting to RON 720,000.

Orange Romania was found in breach of its obligations in 12 localities and was applied a RON 120,000 contravention fine.

Telekom Romania Mobile Communications failed to cover 6 localities and was fined RON 60,000.

The three sanctioned electronic communications providers will have to pay their contravention fines to the state budget and to fulfil their coverage obligations as provided in the licences for the use of radio frequencies. 

Background information

In the second half of 2012, ANCOM organised the selection procedure and awarded the rights for the use of radio frequencies in the 800MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz bands for providing public electronic communications networks and mobile communications services – voice and data, up to 2029. For the first time in Romania, the licences for the use of radio frequencies were awarded by a competitive selection procedure. The reserve price for the licence corresponding to each frequency block in the four bands was established by Government Decision, the licence fees resulted from the auction amounting to a total value of EUR 682,136,036.

During the selection procedure, Cosmote Romanian Mobile Telecommunications won 1 block in the 800 MHz band, 2 blocks in the 900 MHz band, 5 blocks in the 1800 MHz band and 2 blocks in the 2600 MHz (FDD) band, while Orange Romania acquired 2 blocks in the 800 MHz band, 2 blocks in the 900 MHz band, 4 blocks in the 1800 MHz band and 4 blocks in the 2600 MHz (FDD) band. RCS&RDS won 1 block in the 900 MHz band, and Vodafone Romania won 2 blocks in the 800 MHz band, 2 blocks in the 900 MHz band, 6 blocks in the 1800 MHz band and one 15 MHz block in the 2600 MHz (TDD) band. 2K Telecom won two 15 MHz blocks in the 2600 MHz (TDD) band.

All the licences for the use of the radio frequency spectrum obtained in the auction are valid from 2014 until 2029.

The awarded licences provided the operators’ obligation to grant priority in ensuring coverage to 676 localities unserved by broadband communications networks, the deadline for fulfilling this obligation being 5 April 2016.