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ANCOM to Organise in 2012 the First Frequency Spectrum Tender in Romania
30.12.2011
Following the debates with the stakeholders of the electronic communications market, that took place today at ANCOM headquarters, as well as following the results of the comments received during the public consultation, the Authority decided to open for tender in 2012 all the radio frequencies available in the 900 and 1800 MHz bands, which are currently used by Cosmote, Orange and Vodafone.
Moreover, ANCOM will take all necessary steps in order to free and open for tender the 800 and 2600 MHz bands, which currently are partially used by the Ministry of National Defense.
In order to ensure continuous provision of mobile communications services, ANCOM has decided to extend the licences of Orange and Vodafone until the 31st of December 2012, while the new licences are to enter into force on the 1st of January 2013, for the bands currently owned byOrange Romania and Vodafone Romania and, respectively, on the 6th of April 2014, for the bands currently owned by Cosmote.
For the licences to be extended, Orange Romania and Vodafone România will have to pay a licence fee to the state budget. The Government has approved a 6.4 million euro licence tax value for each of the operators, a value that is proportionate with the amounts paid for obtaining the licences in 1996, computed by ANCOM by indexing the historical licences values.
The solution to grant radio spectrum rights of use in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands by competitive selection procedure, while such rights are to become effective after the expiry of the current rights, fully complies with both the provisions under the relevant European legislation regarding the allocation of spectrum resources and the national legislation. At the same time, 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.
“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%, the comparative selections, focusing on the rapidness and amplitude of infrastructure development, are less justified”, declaredCătălin Marinescu, President of ANCOM.
ANCOM President also stated that the tender will allow new competitors to enter the Romanian market as well. The tender will take place during the first half of 2012 and, until then, the Authority will develop and submit to public consultation a detailed tender plan. The tender will be designed such as to ensure equal, non-discriminating, proportionate and transparent conditions for all the operators interested in activating in the Romanian market.
ANCOM considers that granting the rights of spectrum usage by means of a selection procedure will result in long term benefits as regards the efficient use of the radio spectrum resource and the promotion of competition, with a positive impact over the users.
The 2012 Action Plan of the Authority has also been approved during the Consultative Council, in the form initially put forward by ANCOM, and is available for consultation here.
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