Romanian telecom company RCS & RDS was rejected from a bid for mobile telephony licenses in neighboring Hungary, for unpaid commissions to the surveillance authority in the country.

Seven companies submitted preliminary offers for the bid on the 900 MHz band in Hungary, but RCS & RDS and Vietnamese Viettel's offers were rejected. The remaining companies Magyar Telekom, Telenor Hungary, Vodafone Hungary and the consortium made of Villamosmuvek and MFB Invest can advance to the next stage of the bid. Telenor, Vodafone and Magyar Telekom already supply mobile telephony services in Hungary.

RCS & RDS, which was set up 17 years ago and is controlled by Romanian businessman Zoltan Teszari, is active in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Spain and Italy, apart from home country Romania. It supplies fixed telephony, Internet and cable and satellite TV services in Hungary. It provides similar services in Romania, where it also hopes to enter the mobile telephony market. The Romanian authorities plan to sell mobile telephony licenses in 2012, as the current contracts with Vodafone, Orange and Cosmote operators will expire.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Photoxpress.com)