Romanian Govt. sweetens terms for 5G auction

The Romanian Communications Ministry has taken steps to sweeten the terms of the auction for the allocation of the 5G licenses, fearing that complete freezing of the deal would leave the Government without a significant amount of money.

The ministry initiated a draft emergency ordinance (OUG) aimed at correcting the problems posed to the telecommunication sector by the so-called “greed ordinance” (OUG 114/2018) that among others make it impossible to launch the tender for the new 5G frequency bands.

“In case of urgent non-adoption of the present project, the necessary conditions for the collection by the end of 2019, to the state budget, of the estimated sums for the use of the radio bands for mobile communications will not be fulfilled, which will lead to a budget deficit,” the ministry says in the document supporting the new OUG, local Hotnews.ro reported.

The move comes after the telecom market regulator ANCOM warned on June 11 that unless the provisions for the telecommunications sector provisioned by OUG 114/2018 are abolished by the end of June, the auction for the new 5G frequencies can no longer be organized this year.

Under OUG 114, the Government set the starting price for the 5G licenses at 5% of the telecom companies' turnover in the year preceding the auction while the renewal of existing licenses would cost the companies 4% of their turnover. Separately, OUG 114 sets a 3% turnover fee for the telecommunication companies.

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