Early last week, the five telecom operators filed ANCOM the bids for mobile telephony licenses, whose starting value exceeds EUR700 million.
The actual auction is due to start September 10 and a results is expected by October.
Two types of licenses will be assigned based on the bid, namely a long-term one, on 15 years, until April 2029, and on short-term, namely for 15 months, until April 2014.
Orange Romania, part of France Telecom-Orange, is a leader on the local mobile telephony market, followed by Vodafone Romania, part of British mobile operator Vodafone Group.
Cosmote Romania, a unit of Greek group Cosmote in turn owned by OTE, is the third largest operator on the local market by the number of clients.
RCS&RDS SA, controlled by businessman Zoltan Teszari in Oradea, holds a telecommunication infrastructure on optic fiber support and covers 200 towns in Romania with TV cable, Internet, fixed and mobile telephony services.
Established in 2000, 2K Telecom is owned by Alexandru Ghita, with a 67.12% stake, Vasile Domente, with a 8.05% stake, and Vasile Radu, with 24.83%. Alexandru Ghita and Vasile Domente are the brother and, respectively, the uncle of businessman Sebastian Ghita, the founder of Asesoft group of companies.