Romania cuts starting price for 5G licenses auction

The minimum price that the Romanian state expects to get from telecom groups Orange, Telekom, Vodafone, and Digi in the auction for the sale of 5G licenses went down by EUR 420 million, from EUR 1 billion to EUR 580 million, according to the auction requirements put into public debate by the telecom regulator ANCOM, local Ziarul Financiar reported.

In December 2018, prime minister Viorica Dancila’s former economic advisor Darius Valcov announced that the minimum price the Government expected to get from the 5G licenses sale was EUR 1 billion. On the same occasion, the Government announced the infamous “greed tax” ordinance, which set extra taxes on sectors such as banking, energy and telecom. In the meantime, the ordinance’s provisions have been sweetened and Valcov resigned from the Government, following former PSD leader Liviu Dragnea’s imprisonment, at the end of May.

ANCOM plans to launch the tender for 5G licenses by the end of this year.

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