Romania’s General Inspectorate for Communications and Information Technology (IGCTI) has said it will offer two national 3.5GHz WiMAX licences for auction in April. The regulator says it will also set aside spectrum for four regional WiMAX concessions and a number of local licences. The head of the IGCTI, Catalin Marinescu, said that it plans to alter its licence allocation procedure ‘from comparative to competitive’.
Meanwhile, the president of Romania’s National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology (ANRCTI) is predicting that WiMAX technology will help boost broadband penetration rates in 2007. Speaking at a WiMAX conference, Dan Georgescu said that he expects broadband penetration to increase from its current level of 5.5% to around 10% by year-end. ‘That would bring us closer to the European average of 14.1%’, he said.