Regulator fines top telecom providers in Romania for failing to reach coverage target

Romania’s telecom regulator ANCOM issued total fines of RON 1.61 million (EUR 337,000) for the top four mobile operators in the country for failing to meet their obligation to reach a coverage rate of at least 98% of Romania’s population for mobile voice services.

“As part of a dedicated campaign, we verified the coverage with mobile voice services in approximately 13,400 localities, ie in all localities with more than 10 inhabitants, as well as over 246,000 km on national, county, city and communal roads. Because none of the operators providing mobile voice services fulfilled the obligation to cover with voice services areas inhabited by at least 98% of the population of Romania, we applied fines totaling RON 1.61 million, depending on the percentage of coverage reached by each one,” said Cristian Popa, executive director of ANCOM.

“The operators have assumed these obligations with the licenses to use the radio spectrum, they are not optional. We will resume this measurement campaign again this year and we will continue, if necessary, to apply sanctions until the fulfillment of the obligations assumed is complete,” he added.

The voice services provided by Orange, the biggest telecom company in Romania, covered 97.81% of the country’s population last year, followed by Vodafone – 97.76%. Thus the sanctions for these two operators were the lowest, namely RON 50,000 for Orange and RON 60,000 for Vodafone.

Meanwhile, Telekom Romania, which had a coverage of 96.53%, was fined with RON 700,000 and RCS&RDS (Digi), whose coverage was 95.42%, was fined RON 800,000.

(Photo source: Pixabay.com)