Romanian official: China Mobile, AT&T, M3 Group and Telenor, interested in local telecom market

Catalin Marinescu, president of the telecom regulator and Marius Fecioru, state secretary in the Ministry of Communications lobbied at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (February 27- March 1) for sparking the interest of global telecom players into the bidding for telecom licenses.

“China Mobile, AT&T, M3 Group and Telenor have shown interest in entering on the market,” said Fecioru for Pro TV news channel.

“The state wants to heighten competition on the market since the large players have already accustomed to each other. Bringing a new operator would result into lower costs with the mobile telephony bill and higher cash-in for the state from the licenses for spectrum,” said Fecioru for the TV channel.

The bidding for spectrum, most likely to take place in the first half of this year, is the most important event on this matter so far organized by the Romanian authorities- “the largest amount of spectrum that has ever been allocated in one single session in Romania,” Marinescu told Business Review.

The bidding could represent an open door for other global telecom companies to penetrate the local market. “The auction will be open to any operator showing interest in it, from Romania and abroad, and the spectrum that is put up for auction will allow more operators than exist on the market right now to supply mobile communication services,” Marinescu told Business Review.

“It would not come as a big surprise to hear of the takeover of Vodafone Romania or Orange Romania by another large European operator. Such rumors were flying about last year as well, but so far it seems the interested parties have not taken the plunge,” Adrian Ciobanu, managing director of Reimens Group, also told Business Review.
Otilia Haraga