Romania’s National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) has announced it received only two qualifying applications within the competitive selection procedure organised for the auction of short-term user rights for spectrum in the 800MHz, 2600MHz and 3.5GHz bands. Following examination, RCS&RDS (DIGI) and Invite Systems were declared to have submitted qualified and winning offers and will proceed to the next stage. The final results of the auction, which is expected to raise at least EUR72.5 million (USD82.2 million), are expected to be announced in December and permits granted by the end of the year.
Under the tendering procedure, applicants were able to purchase 195MHz of frequencies, with user rights valid from 1 January 2022 and expiry aligned with existing permits in the bands, comprising:
• one block of 2×5MHz in the 800MHz band (791MHz-796MHz/832MHz-837MHz), valid between 1 January 2022 and 5 April 2029 and with a starting price of EUR22 million
• eight lots of 2×5MHz in the 2600MHz band (2530MHz-2570MHz/2650MHz-2690MHz), valid until 5 April 2029, EUR4.3 million per paired block
• one block of 15MHz TDD in the 2600MHz band (2600MHz-2615MHz), expiry 5 April 2029, EUR3.5 million per block
• 18 lots of 5MHz TDD blocks in the 3.5GHz (3400MHz-3490MHz) band, expiry 31 December 2025, EUR700,000 per block.
RCS&RDS, owned by Romania-based Digi Communications, is the country’s fourth largest mobile network operator by subscriptions, whereas Invite Systems’ website indicates the company owns and operates two Tier 3 data centres in Bucharest and Ploesti, and provides voice, VPN, VPBX, fibre-optic, wireless and LoRa WAN services.