Telecom regulator will complete next year a long-term strategy for spectrum usage

The National Authority for Administration and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) is currently working on a long term strategy concerning that usage of all the bandwidth spectrum, Catalin Marinescu, president of the Authority, said during the Business Review event Focus on Telecom.

“What we have been doing this year and will complete early next year is the long term strategies for the usage of all bands of the spectrum long term. Maybe you saw the strategy for the band of 2.5 Ghz we finalized in June. This month we will bring under public consultation the strategy for the evolution of the LTE. All these strategies are complementary, because some bands more efficient in providing services and we are thinking of some bands as complementary solutions,” said Marinescu.

He also added that for the telecom industry predictability and the financial incentive are important factors. “It is important that they know how much they pay for the spectrum not only over the next year but in 10 year term, since investments in telecom industry are big and they need to have long term predictability,” also said Marinescu.

Additionally, the authority is trying to encourage a more efficient bandwidth usage from operators.

“We also tried to stimulate telecom operators with financial incentives by decreasing the spectrum tariffs over the last two years. We are thinking to asses how it is the best to set the tariffs for the spectrum in the future years, because now operators use a band to provide their services but in the future they will need a band that is two times larger than what they use today. We want to stimulate the operators to use the band more efficiently,” Marinescu explained.