So far, four frequency usage licences have been awarded to Orange, Vodafone, RCS&RDS and Telekom Romania Mobile Communications and are currently in force. The licences were issued following two comparative selection procedures, conducted in 2004 and 2006. The price of such a licence was initially set to USD 35 million, for a 15-year period.

Orange, Telekom and Vodafone use the 2100 MHz band for the provision of UMTS/3G networks and services, whereas RCS&RDS uses it for the provision of UMTS/3G and LTE/4G networks and services.

The validity of the licences awarded to Orange and Vodafone ends in March 2020, and the validity of the licences issued to RCS&RDS and Telekom Romania Mobile Communications ends in January 2022, the four operators holding similar frequency portfolios in this band.

 

The amount of the licence fee to be paid for the extended validity usage rights has been set by indexing the historic price of USD 35 million.

Thus, ANCOM proposes that Orange and Vodafone, whose licences could be extended from April 2020, should pay a licence fee representing the RON equivalent of EUR 30 million per licence, while RCS&RDS and Telekom Romania Mobile Communications, whose licences could be extended from January 2022, should pay the RON equivalent of EUR 25 million.

Operators intending to benefit from the extended validity frequency usage rights will have to pay the licence fee to the state budget.

 

The Draft Government Decision regarding the amount of the licence fee for extending the validity of certain frequency usage rights is available for consultation, in Romanian, here. The interested persons are invited to submit their comments and suggestions, by 17 January 2020, at the ANCOM headquarters (2 Delea Noua Street, Bucharest 3), directly to the ANCOM Registry Office or by means of ANCOM’s regional divisions. Comments may also be sent by fax to +40 372 845 402 or by e-mail to consultare@ancom.org.ro.