Government still to approve telecom license taxes

Even though Dan Nica, the minister of communications, announced last week that the government might approve on Wednesday, June 6, the bill that will set the official starting prices for the telecom licenses, this did not happen.

The bill will set in motion the multi-million euro bidding for spectrum which will reshape the market over the next 15 years.

After the minimum level of the license taxes is adopted, the next steps are as outlined below by Catalin Marinescu, president of ANCOM.

“In the shortest time span (probably a few days) the result of the public consultation for the task book and the procedure decision will be established. Within a week of this, the consultative council will take place – a meeting between the authority and the operators on the market – when we will complete the two documents (the procedure decision and the task book.) Within four weeks after the procedure decision is published in the Official Monitor – so sometime in mid-July – the operators interested in obtaining 4G mobile telephony licenses must submit their initial offer and the documents which make them eligible to participate in the auction. After this, in another three-four weeks, depending on whether there are contestations or not (so sometime in the first ten days of August), the auction rounds will actually begin. Depending on the number of rounds, we are convinced that by the end of August, the winners of the auction will be announced,” said Marinescu.

All of the bidders will have at their disposal an IT application that will help them develop their offer, and also a space where their team can do so. “All eligible participants will be trained on how to use the application. It is very simple to use and it will definitely not obstruct them,” said Marinescu.

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The communications minister announced last week that the minimum prices will be those proposed by ANCOM.

“The taxes are those that you all already know. We wanted to be sure about certain elements. One: that this will be an auction that respects the principle ‘whoever pays more, wins.’ Two: that it complies with EU norms, that it is a transparent process that respects what happened in large European states and we hope it will finish at the end of August or the beginning of September at the latest, so that the new license owners can start developing the 4G networks, to the joy of those who already have 4G handsets and can only look at them,” said Nica.

The minimum prices proposed by ANCOM were contested by operators such as  RCS&RDS.  However, the firm also told BR that it would “bid as much as necessary” to obtain what it needs. “Our strategy is to offer the best services to our customers in other frequencies as well. First of all, we are looking at gaining access to the 900 MHz bandwidth but we are also thinking about other frequencies as well,” said Valentin Popoviciu, business development manager at RCS&RDS.

The authority’s response to the issue of the starting prices was: “We made a complex analysis of the prices based on what happened inEurope. We have taken into account the size of the country and the level of the tariffs in our country. So we adjusted the average prices in Europe to the conditions inRomania. We believe that prices reflect this adaptation and also what happened on other European markets in the case of this type of auction as well.”

One important point is that after the auction, operators will be in the position to offer 4G services in Romania. “Shortly after the licenses are available we will be ready to launch 4G services. Orange has already carried out some tests for 4G and we believe that the transition to this technology can be made in a relatively short time,” Dorin Odiatiu, public affairs, partnerships and wholesale director at Orange, previously told BR.

Similarly, Inaki Berroeta, CEO of Vodafone, previously said that if there is a proper distribution of the spectrum, continuity of services and predictability of investments are guaranteed and costs are reasonable, the company “will invest in and launch 4G services this year.”

Popoviciu, of RCS&RDS, said his company will also be in the position to offer these services, if it gets the necessary spectrum.

“We can also start offering 4G services at the end of this year, the same as our competitors. But first of all we need to know what we can count on.”

Otilia Haraga