Romanian communications officials lobby for mobile telephony frequencies tender at Barcelona Congress

Romania lobbied for its upcoming sale of mobile telephony frequencies at the Barcelona mobile telephony congress last week, where two Romanian officials met representatives of international mobile telephony operators. So far, China Mobile, AT&T, M3 Group and Telenor stated their interest to enter the Romanian market, said Marius Fecioru, state secretary within the Communication Ministry in Romania. The Romanian state would like to have new players on the mobile communication market, as the existing large players – Vodafone, Orange, Cosmote- have got 'used to eachother' so that prices are not as high as they could be, according to Fecioru. Cătălin Marinescu, the head of the Romanian National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM), also attended the congress in Barcelona. ANCOM will organize the first frequency spectrum tender in Romania in the first half of 2012, for all the radio frequencies available in the 900 and 1800 MHz bands, which are currently used by operators Cosmote, Orange and Vodafone. ANCOM will also free and open for tender the 800 and 2600 MHz bands, which are currently partially used by the Ministry of National Defense. This would allow new competitors to enter the Romanian mobile telephony market. The communication authority has extended the licenses for Orange and Vodafone until the end of 2012. Each operators will have to pay EUR 6.4 million for the license extension. Vodafone and Orange paid USD 75 million each for their license back in 1996. Cosmote bought the rights to use the 1,710-1,785 MHz/1,805-1,880 MHz frequencies in 1998, valid for 15 years, for some USD 53 million. The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona took place between February 27 and March 1. editor@romania-insider.com