12 May 2011
“The National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications will elaborate and adopt in 2011 a strategy for the development of BWA services in the 2500-2690 MHz and 790-862 MHz frequency bands, and will allot the spectrum resources in the bands assigned for these services, by means of a selection procedure, in 2012”,Mr.Bogdan Iana, Director of the ANCOM Executive Division for Radio Spectrum and Numbering Management stated during the international conference entitled “Radio spectrum strategies – necessity, opportunity, involvement”,which took place today.
Among the objectives pursued by ANCOM in the frequency awarding process, we count: increasing the penetration of broadband communications services, stimulating competition in the mobile communications services market, encouraging efficient investments in the national infrastructure and promoting innovation, allotting efficiently the radio spectrum resource to those operators which value it most, and creating an optimal correlation with the frequency bands already licensed for this type of services (i.e. the 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands).
The ANCOM representative showed that, in the context in which the licences held by Orange Romania and Vodafone Romania in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz frequency bands expire at the end of this year, in view of the fast roll-out of BWA networks and services, the Authority takes into account two options in establishing the procedure for the awarding of the frequency spectrum in the four bands of interest for the implementation of broadband services in Romania.
Thus, the first option is to extend until the mid of 2014 the validity of the two oldest 900/1800 MHz bands licences, held by Orange Romania and Vodafone Romania, in order to align them to the expiry date of the third licence in the 900/1800 MHz bands held by Cosmote, and to organise in 2012 a selection procedure in order to grant spectrum usage rights in the 800 and 2600 MHz frequency bands, simultaneously with the 900 and 1800 MHz frequency bands; these rights of use would enter into force in 2013 and, respectively, in 2014.
A second option would be to extend until the end of 2021 the validity of all the 900/1800 MHz bands licences, in order to align them to the expiry date of the two newest 2100 MHz band licences, held by Cosmote and RCS & RDS, and to organise in 2012 a selection procedure in order to grant spectrum usage rights in the 800 and 2600 MHz frequency bands; these rights of use would enter into force in 2013. In this case, ANCOM will elaborate a strategy until 2020, at the latest, regarding the spectrum refarming in all the above-mentioned bands.
A third option might appear upon the consultation with the Romanian communications industry, which is to take place before the adoption of the strategy for the development of broadband mobile services in Romania.
“These days we have received the results of the study on the impact of the 900 and 1800 MHz bands use for third generation services. The study will be considered when elaborating the strategy for the development of broadband services in Romania, since its conclusions show that we need to apply at least one competition remedy on the market for mobile communications services. Following the complex quantitative and qualitative analysis of a variety of possible remedies to address the identified competitive deficiencies, three possible solutions have been kept. Each of these solutions contains combinations of several remedies, under various forms and with a suitable implementation calendar. Examples of remedies considered in outlining the solutions are: freeing a 5MHz frequency block in the 900MHz band, national roaming, the conclusion of infrastructure sharing agreements between operators. The combination of remedies to be implemented by ANCOM will be established following a public consultation with the industry”, Cătălin Marinescu, the President of ANCOM, declared.
In order to ensure equitable spectrum portfolios for all operators which currently own or will own spectrum usage rights in the frequency bands designated for the provision of broadband electronic communications networks and services, ANCOM considers imposing – within the selection procedure for spectrum allotment – certain restrictions as to the maximum spectrum amount an operator may obtain in the 800 MHz band, taking into account the spectrum amount held in the 900 MHz (for the GSM operators). The Authority also plans to provide for the participants in the selection procedure the possibility to define the minimum individual spectrum requirements that they deem necessary for developing their chosen business model, and to impose a set of minimal conditions for the use of radio spectrum including: the service coverage levels, the deadlines for achieving these levels, and the technical conditions for the co-existence with other applications allowed in the same band or in the adjacent bands.
Furtherdetails on the conference are available on the dedicated webpage, here.